Coasting Through Life
by Lightning Ash
Summary: Left without a purpose since his removal from Spirit World ranks, the human world's strongest warrior wanders, searching every nook and cranny of the lands that could give him that sense of meaning once again. Fortunately, a little neighbourhood block in his hometown of Tokyo has no shortage of things to do. Yusukexfem!Ranma
1. Warriors Who Wander the World

"Here you go, sir! Enjoy your meal!" Chirped the overenthusiastic attractive female cashier wearing the distinctive red shirt with short blue sleeves and a yellow collar of the Burger King fastfood establishment, complete with a hamburger-styled cap fitted on her crop of shiny golden locks. She giddily exchanged a bag full of five cheeseburgers, three portions of French fries and a side order of coke over to a nineteen-year old foreigner.

"Thanks. I'll be sure to mail ya the bill after this sends me on a one-way trip to hell," The retired Spirit Detective sarcastically grumbled, eliciting a giggle from the bubbly cashier as he sauntered out of the restaurant with his order in both hands, using his shoulder to shove the door open.

He decided, the first time he set foot on a foreign land that forced him to speak in his second language his generation were forced to learn in Elementary school to bridge the language barrier, that he struck out like a sore thumb midst the onrushing Caucasians and African Americans on the Big Apple. A few would look his way in curiosity to his presence in their world, but thankfully, only a minority of the stares were adult ones. Most were kids, innocently curious to see an alleged grown-up so radically different in features to what they were used to seeing in their country of birth.

That was fine to Spirit World's former employee. He loved kids, the adorable little rascals they were.

He picked his choice of restaurant well, making sure it was close to where he wanted to eat: the statue of liberty. It took him no more than a few moments to reach the lake separating the sculpture's island from the city itself. He flicked glances to both his flanks, confirming no one was watching him before dematerializing entirely, reappearing on the shoulder of the massive statue itself.

"The view's something else up here," He mumbled in thought. True enough. The Big Apple was quite the sight from a distance. Skyscrapers, buildings far taller than he was used to seeing daily in his own country, stood, pointed at the heavens, all compressed and congested around the city. He wondered how they could even get around when he first reached New York a week ago.

With a gentle breeze blowing the bangs of his short crop of raven hair, Yusuke Urameshi heaved a sigh and propped himself down on the lady's shoulder, one leg crossed sideways over the other to make a makeshift table for his lunch. He pried open the bag, dipping his hand in and pulling out a burger, looking at it with a comical scowl on his face.

"Sheesh. Talk about a heart attack in a bun." But as he took a chunk out of it, he added with a lackadaisical air around him, bits of his burger flying out of his mouth, "…At least it's cheap." From there he lazily picked a couple of fries out of the bag and placed them into his mouth to chew on them and swallow them down his throat before doing the same to the rest.

He retained most of his style from his more rebellious years, the kind of look that told senior citizens to avoid guys like him. After years of being a delinquent it became who he was at heart. It wasn't something he could just rewrite so easily. His raven-hair remained slicked back with gel and he sported a white wife-beater sleeveless tank top, underneath a long-sleeved unbuttoned medium green dress shirt, perfectly displaying his toned chest and dog pendent chain. All of which were topped off with beige coloured baggy jeans and black and white sneakers on his feet.

"Nineteen year old Yusuke Urameshi, a middle school dropout, a fired spirit detective, the captain of the champions Team Urameshi of the dark tournament, the _fearless defender_ of justice, and quarter-finalist in the Makai-tournament is bored as hell…" The ancestral son of the deceased Raizen more or less summed up his life in a bored tone.

What a bore. He had been too naïve, assuming everything would all "work itself out" on the end of his Spirit Detective journey and start of adult life, the bona-fide fairy tale ending, but this was life and sometimes things didn't always pan out to one's happy expectations. The time he reunited with Keiko and the rest of his friends from his three-year spell in the Demon World, they all were nearing the end of High school and applying for spots in prestigious Universities.

That left him as the odd man out and his explicit lack of aspiration in anything outside of fighting opened up a whole can of worms with Keiko. She demanded him to take night courses to get his missing education, but he had no interest in quantifications used to become a respectable member of society when there was an easy, accessible way to make money and not only was it exploitable too it served as good practice to sharpen his skills for the next Presidential demonic tournament.

He had been itching for a crack at the blind warrior since losing to him and that served as the wretch that drove him and Keiko further apart then they already were before Yusuke initially left for Demon World to train with his now deceased ancestral father.

He was too hung on fighting to be the family man she wanted.

Since then he wandered the world, officially leaving his mother's nest, embarking on a journey of expedition, just searching for anything that could give him the purpose he missed having being a Spirit Detective.

"This blows! What's the point of having all this power if there's nothing to do with it!?" Yusuke grumbled in frustration, grabbing his fourth burger and greedily getting a bite out of it in a manner resembling a caveman.

'Can't go home 'cause mom will just nag me to death 'bout not getting into Uni like Keiko and Kuwabara,' Yusuke mused, looking up at the clouds like they would tell him the future.

'I mean what does she take me for, a professor?' Yusuke asked himself rhetorically, a comical look of annoyance coming to his features, 'I'm qualified for blowing shit up, not discovering the reasons for the dinosaurs' extinction.'

Yusuke sighed. He remained silent as he ate his meal with a deep look of concentration on his features, trying to avoid his mind getting clouded so he could consider his options of what to do for today.

Yusuke's mind came up blank even as he wolfed down his final cheeseburger and last ounce of unhealthy food.

"Aw, to hell with it; I'll just wing it. There's gotta be some interesting cracks pots I can let loose on around this globe of normal, I've just got to find 'em," Yusuke concluded, throwing his litter into the vast lake before hopping off of the statue, flickering out of existence to set off once again.

His goal: to find something of interest.

Coasting Through Life

 **C**

 **H**

 **A**

 **P**

 **T**

 **E**

 **R**

 **ONE**

Warriors Who Wander the World

(Sometime Later)

He had to resist the urge to plant a well smacked palm against his face when anything of real significance happened in his hometown of Tokyo, the very hometown he set off from in the hopes of coming across any minor leads that could potentially lead to something bigger. It took him three months before he retraced his roots home, but that was only so he could farm some extra cash in shady underground events and take in the sights of each town he frequented.

He had to say, did all towns have a bridge and a lake? Because it seemed no matter which town radically different in scenery they all saw fit to have a bridge and a lake for whatever superstitious reason only the lord knew. It was actually kind of weird.

Anyway, back to the topic of noticeable interest.

A boy, probably in his teens and a little younger than Yusuke himself, walked with a casual ease on the thin railing of a fence that separated entrance to a canal, his nonchalant stride contradicting his extremely tangible depressive aura. Seriously, anyone with the keen senses to detect emotions like Yusuke would've thought the boy had the nasty habit of cutting his wrists on a daily basis. He was that much in the mud.

Sadness and prodigious balance aside one thing regarding the seemingly emo teen struck out to Yusuke like a sore thumb. Well, two things really, but one involved the other. His aura was low, laughably low, yet emanated with a potent despondent vibe about it Yusuke almost wanted to slit his own wrists, and he was nowhere near suicidal.

He did not get that way by way of accident. His emotions were entirely too tangible in his aura for him to be naturally weak. Normal humans without the spiritual training of Yusuke and his boys of kickassery did not possess emotional ki potent enough to physically affect the state of others.

"Someone sabotaged him," Yusuke concluded in a mutter underneath his breath so the teen and his company wouldn't hear him, narrowing his eyes in disdain. What a dickish thing to do.

It was, as if, the braided haired teen had heard him, murmuring out in over exaggerated despair, "I'm gonna be weak forever!"

Yusuke smirked despite himself, 'Called it!'

The boy's companion, a beautiful girl with shoulder-length midnight black hair, tried to cheer him up by staying optimistic, "Oh c'mon Ranma! You're being ridiculous! I'm sure Grandfather Happosai won't let you stay this way forever!"

The smirk on Yusuke's face widened a bit until a sharp fang was seen poking out of his lips, glinting in the sunlight. 'Damn I'm good.'

Ranma's aversion to hand-holding and fake reassurances were clear in his bitter reply, "Aw, what do you know, Akane!? This is the old freak we're talkin' about here!"

And with that snappishly said, Akane's comforting smile was gone; vanished as if it never existed, "I was just trying to help, idiot!"

Ranma's stubborn pride was just big enough that he wouldn't recede in his mistake, glaring down at his companion in annoyance, "Aw, like hell! Who would want the help of an uncute tomboy like you!"

"Fine! See if I try to cheer a jerk like you up again!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Yusuke moved along discreetly, hands in his pockets like he wasn't eavesdropping, successfully passing himself off as a random stranger going about his business, leaving the two to their squabbling. He found no value in a petty argument between - potential? – lovers. The Keiko-nostalgia was strong in it, reminding him why their relationship never moved past first base. They argued frequently, to the point being together was more stressful than not.

That and Yusuke was a kind of Goku-esque deadbeat bum whose only preference in life lied in the very delicate art of ass kicking.

If they were together, Yusuke couldn't see it lasting even to the end of highschool.

"Wonder if I should help the guy out with that old dude," Yusuke mused in reflexive thought. It could have been a beneficial task to run with knowledge to gain from it. Potential win-win. Zapping an enemy's strength seemed neat. Granted, it was like hacking in a video game, but he wouldn't mind getting his hands dirty if the fate of the world was on the line like it was when he fought Sensei.

Then again, he highly doubted the boy would be up and arms for the idea of some random stranger saving him in his distress. In Yusuke's brief observation of Ranma's interaction with Akane he determined the weakened warrior was very prideful, not even accepting pity for his troubles.

"Meh, I'll keep my eye on 'em for now," Yusuke concluded in reason, "Something may come up later." He could've been fun to spar against. You know, when his full power was once again accessible to him again, though Yusuke had his severe doubts. If his power was anywhere near Akane's, then Yusuke could've evaporated him with a fart.

Her reserves were the equivalent of Goukai's, one of the very first "bad-guys" Yusuke fought as a Spirit Detective. And as the "hero" of any decent story half worth its salt only grew in power as his story progressed, Yusuke was worlds beyond of his former nemesis, meaning it was likely no one here would satiate his itch for battle.

He sighed with that realization and continued on his way, no course of action or route decided, just letting his feet carry him to the next thing of interest.

…That, surprisingly, only took a few minutes from leaving his front row view of Akane and Ranma's argument.

"Now where am I?" His eyes landed on another raven-haired boy also in his teens, cloaked in a yellow sleeveless shirt and a marching bandanna, followed by his black trousers and black shoes on his feet. Interestingly enough, he also possessed a fang protruding from his lip, which was one of the main features Yusuke noticed instantly, beside from his abnormally large Spirit Energy reserves, "Oh Akane! Where could you be? It's been so long since I last saw you and I miss you!"

Akane? It was in the realm of possibilities that the Akane he was referring to was the same one who accompanied the weakened warrior, based on the fact that they were in the same neighbourhood block of Nerima. It was shaky at best considering the boy didn't have any earthly clue pertaining to his whereabouts, though it could be bypassed if the boy turned out not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, which would be great for Yusuke.

He had always had a thing for fisticuffs with a fellow muscle head.

"Maybe I should get the ol' jet running up," Yusuke quipped, an animistic smirk of hunger eagerness emerging on his face. He would have to severely limit himself, Kenpachi-style, to make the fight more interesting, but it had been too long that he grinned savagely like the beast he felt like he was in battle.

With that in mind, he strode forward with purpose to initiate friendly conversation with his potential opponent, but apparently, another lady by the name of fate was also giving him the cold shoulder, sending a diminutive elderly woman out from her garden with a water can who, absently, and, oddly pleasantly, dosed the boy, causing his form to shrink as the remains of his vacant clothes plummeted.

…

…

…

Yusuke intelligently reacted to the spontaneous occurrence of sheer oddity, "Huh?" Even the visible small tremor produced from the impact of the boy's umbrella hitting the ground didn't spur him from his daze. He rose a skeptical eyebrow when a piggish squeal reverberated from the loose shirt before a snout emerged from the neck area, "Okay."

Well, then. His battle boner was dead.

He felt blue balled, in an odd metaphorical kind of way, as he approached the tiny creature who had once been a teenage boy, emerging from the confines of the shirt wearing the same bandanna the boy wore around his forehead, only around his neck.

That was something to take note of, "Whaddya know, you _literally_ do learn something new every-day," Yusuke said to no one in particular, raising his eyebrow when the piglet flinched and turned its head to look at him with wide eyes.

Yusuke bent down and plucked the struggling piglet off of the ground, staring at it with a frown on his features, "Well I'm slumped. Are you my dinner?" The piglet rapidly shook its head with sweat bullets raining down its face, "So I guess that means I ain't losing my mind. You really did just go from a dude to a potential turkey cooked dinner at the touch of a little water, eh?" He fisted his cheek in bored indifference.

The piglet frantically nodded its head, sweating nervously at the mention of a turkey cooked dinner.

"So what now, you stuck this way, or what?" The piglet shook its head, "You can change back?" The piglet nodded its head at Yusuke's question, prompting him to turn his head to the cause of the strange boy's transformation.

"Will that do the trick?" Yusuke wondered and the piglet shook his head, "Eh. So water won't reverse the effects?" The piglet jerked its little head from side to side in the negative, "It will eh," The piglet squealed and nodded its head in confirmation, "Just not ice cold water, is that what you're trying to tell me?"

The piglet squealed and nodded its head.

"Guess ya need to be roasted in hot water to turn back eh." Yusuke stated and the piglet whined but gave another meekly nod in confirmation before Yusuke effortlessly lifted up the transformed boy's belongings which had fallen off of him due to his shrunken body.

The piglet gulped at the mysterious boy's show of strength as Yusuke wielded his heavy umbrella, backpack, clothes, and shoes all in one hand.

"Alright. Let's go find ya some hot water then," Yusuke said, much to the piglet's delight before it felt cold water hitting its and Yusuke's forms, causing Yusuke to become enraged as he spun around to the little old lady, "Hey, watch where you're spraying that thing lady! This isn't a car-wash, y'know!"

The old lady just looked up at Yusuke with a pleasant smile on her face as she gestured to her ear, "What's that sunny? You hear something?" Yusuke and the piglet just stared at the old woman with an aura of awkwardness around them.

"Uhhhh. Nothing." Yusuke eventually dismissed the matter since he'd more pressing issues to deal with, "Hey, lady, you gotta furo in there or what?"

"Hmm. What's that? You want a cup of tea?" The old lady asked ignorantly, spinning on her heels to walk back into her house.

"No! I said have ya gotta a fu-."

"Come along child. It's been a while since I've had good company," The woman murmured, seemingly ignoring Yusuke's real reason for wanting to tread in her home as she sauntered into her house and left the door open for Yusuke to walk in.

"Geez. I wonder why that is, eh? Maybe if you booked an appointment at the doc's to fix your broken glasses and hearing-aid you wouldn't be avoided like the plague." Yusuke quipped under his breath and the piglet squealed in agreement.

"…Oh well." Yusuke sighed, taking his first few steps to the house with the piglet and the piglet's things in hand, "Let's get ya fixed up, dude."

"Make yourself at home dear. The tea will be ready in thirty minutes," The old lady's voice rang out from somewhere in the tidy, neat little home once Yusuke had ventured into it.

"With pleasure." Yusuke grumbled. Not long after saying that did the half-demon find the bathroom located on the top floor of the little ancient lady's house, "Figures, the old bag's about as stable as a pile of bricks," Yusuke quipped, walking into the furo and chucking the lost-boy's belongings on the ground.

The piglet and Yusuke cringed at the sight of the ground getting ruptured from the heavy belongings Yusuke had carelessly thrown to the ground.

"Damn little guy, you sure come packing, didn't ya?" Yusuke asked in a jesting manner, but the piglet just remained frozen.

Upon walking over to the bath Yusuke switched on the hot water and coolly turned his back on it and began walking over to the wall as if giving the water some time to heat up.

Once Yusuke could feel the steam filling the tub, he knew the water was hot enough for the piglet to transform back into human-form, so Yusuke coolly chucked the piglet over his shoulder and into the bath with a splash.

"Phew. I thought I was a goner back there for sure." A relieved sigh came from behind Yusuke, sounding very much like the voice of the young man Yusuke was about to confront before karma gave both them the middle finger, "Thanks. I own you one…"

"Yusuke. Yusuke Urameshi," Yusuke introduced himself, leaning up against the wall before pulling out a cigarette, lighting it up with nothing but the tip of his index finger.

"Ryoga Hibiki," Ryoga was at least perceptive enough to notice the skill Yusuke had in energy control to light a cigarette with his finger, 'This guy must have extreme mastery over his ki,' He deduced, "Thanks for the save, I guess," It was a little bit awkward talking to a stranger who had been somewhat aware of his cursed form beforehand. Most people would usually just pick up Ryoga in his cursed form and attempt to cook him rather than ask him if he could change back.

Of course once they threw him in the boiling hot water they had prepared to roast Ryoga, he would instantly turn back into his human form and be enraged as hell and ready to murder someone for his suffering.

That was usually the bane of his existence.

…Saotome.

So it was understandable why Ryoga felt a little meek in the powerful black haired man's presence. Add to the fact Ryoga sensed an incredible amount of Ki just oozing off of this young man in front of him the moment he stepped in front of his piglet's form.

'My Ki doesn't even come close to this guy's. He's like a living god compared to me!' Ryoga mused, staring at Yusuke as if he were some deity from above.

Ryoga couldn't even begin to clasp the concept of measuring the teenage boy's enormous Ki-signature to his own, 'This guy's… something else.'

"No props," Yusuke brushed it off, coolly taking a drag from his cigarette while Ryoga nodded a little tentatively, "Tell me something, since I'm new here and all. You owe me a little info at least."

"Oh right," Ryoga snapped at attention hastily, but meekly, "What do you need to know?"

"How did ya do that?"

"Do what?"

"Y'know, go from a potential punching bag for me to release my frustrations on to someone else's dinner, eh. You cursed or something?" Yusuke guessed, making Ryoga gulp. This guy wanted to spar with him.

Screw that!

Yusuke would kill him.

"Oh, well, you see-," Ryoya started to explain, pushing his index fingers together as if it would buy him some-time to think of how to elucidate to Yusuke how he transformed into a piglet after getting doused with cold water so Yusuke could be sated enough to not want beat the information out of him.

"I'm all ears," Yusuke assured, being patient with the shy boy.

Anger suddenly filled Ryoga's eyes at the thought of the cause who left him cursed, so the lost-boy just seethed furiously, "Saotome!"

"Saotome?" Yusuke blinked, prompting Ryoga to elaborate on the matter.

"It's all that damn ingrate's fault for knocking me in the Jusenkyo Spring of Drowned Piglet! Arghhhh! Curse him! Curse him to hell!" Ryoga screamed furiously, causing Yusuke to blink before he took another drag of his cigarette.

"And where're these 'Jusenkyo Springs of Drowned Pigs'?" Quoted Yusuke.

"China, and there's only one drowned piglet spring. The one I fell into," Ryoga raged, balling his hand into a fist, and digging his nails into his skin at the thought of Ranma's smirking face. The smug bastard.

"I'm just gonna take a wild guess here but what the fuck was ya doing in China?" Yusuke questioned, seeing holes in Ryoga's story.

"To seek vengeance on that spineless coward, Saotome!"

"Huh?"

"Yeah! He had the audacity to steal my bread at lunch time when we were in middle school together, and when I finally had enough of his mockery of me I challenged him to a fight but he turned tail and ran on the fourth day I arrived in the place we promised to do battle at! The scum!"

The collision of palm and face echoed audibly in the bathroom. He had heard of some stupid motivations in his small misadventures in his employment under Koemna, but his had to take the cake. Hand him a noble prize, "You mean this Saotome-kid waited three days for you to show up at the place you both agreed to duke it out to whoop your ass?" Yusuke asked to make sure he had this right as he gawked at Ryoga's stupidity, 'Damn. I think I feel bad for this Saotome-guy. Ryoga's a bigger doofus than Kuwabara.'

But that was only assumption, a pretty good estimate if Yusuke said so himself, but an assumption nonetheless. Confirmation of the lingering question of Saotome's patience waning wouldn't hurt when he was condemning someone to mental retardation in his mind.

"Damn straight! That scaredly cat turned yellow belly, and ran by the time I got there!" Ryoga raged.

Clarified.

Ryoga was retarded.

"What the hell were you doing in the time Saotome was doing his nails, hiking through a desert?" Yusuke asked, but Ryoga bypassed that question in favour of hitting the side of the bathtub with his fist in frustration.

"Damn Saotome. He doesn't deserve an angel like Akane-san," Ryoga muttered.

"Akane eh? Who's she, your lady-friend?" Yusuke teased, rolling his eyes, 'More like crush.'

"She should be!" Ryoga shouted. The more he spoke with Yusuke the more comfortable the normally shy boy became to the point where he was willing to shed his protective shell and roar his feelings for the youngest Tendo to a guy he had just met. After all it wasn't like Yusuke knew Akane Tendo, so Ryoga somewhat felt safe that his dirty little secret would be kept hidden from the goddess known as…

…Akane Tendo.

The youngest Tendo deserved nothing less but the best.

"Whoa, easy there Tiger. No need to burst my ear-drums out," Yusuke joked while holding up his hands in something akin to a placating manner, an easy-going grin on his face.

Ryoga might have been startled that should a powerful fighter hadn't scolded him for more or less shouting in his face if the adrenaline-rush wasn't threatening to carry him to the other side of the planet and back again.

"Akane-san shows nothing but kindness to that ingrate Saotome but he replays her kindness by treating her like dirt!" Ryoga roared with a fist pumped up in the air and at this point Yusuke's grin had turned sheepish seeing the kitten of Ryoga evolve into a fearsome tiger at the mention of his princess, Akane.

'Wow, this guy sure did a 180, women I guess. He's a sucker for love.' Yusuke mused with an amused smirk on his lips. He could certainly relate to that, "Well if you care so much about your princess, why don't you pound this douchebag's ass, show him AND her who's king? I'm sure she'd be all over you if you did."

The anger drained out of Ryoga, leaving a pitiful expression on his face, "It's not that simple Yusuke-san."

"Oh yeah. How ya figure? Share with the rest of the class," Yusuke urged.

"Saotome, he's a," Ryoga tried to find the words, but his confidence was leaving him. Fast.

"He's a… what now?" Yusuke probed deeper into the matter.

Ryoga hastily twisted his head to the side to hide the shame on his face, "A no good cheater!"

Yusuke immediately understood the implications of that, "Ah. So he kicks your ass, eh?"

"Not helping Yusuke-san," Ryoga deadpanned.

Yusuke chuckled, "Haha. Alright. Steady the sails, Ryo. 'Cause ya seem like a decent guy-," 'Pathetic more like,' Yusuke corrected himself mentally, "-I've decided to lend ya a helping hand so ya can score your princess, and show this Saotome-guy who's the big-cheese between you two, you feel me?"

Hope filled Ryoga's eyes, "You'd do that for me?"

"Sure. Got nothing better to do with my time. I can cross charity-work off of my good deeds list of which will hopefully see me rise to the luxury hotel up in the big blue sky when I eventually kick the bucket." Yusuke quipped, Ryoga nodding almost lifelessly along.

"Say, where does this Saotome-guy live anyway? I'd like to introduce him to my knuckles," Yusuke said, smirking while he cracked his knuckles, making Ryoga gulp before a devious idea struck the lost-boy like thunder.

Yusuke could give Saotome the righteous beating the arrogant boy had been begging for.

"Oh. Well Saotome lives in the Tendo Dojo with Akane-san and her family," Ryoga explained, suddenly feeling very small once Yusuke turned incredulous eyes onto him, "Well Akane-chan and Saotome are being forced to wed because their folks want to merge their dojos or something."

"Damn. An arranged married. What, did their elephant-god from above order 'em to wed their children?" Yusuke asked, suddenly realizing how bad that sounded, "On second thought, don't answer that one." Yusuke hastily added as he rounded his arm in a circular motion to prepare himself to evaluate Saotome's skills, knowing he would need a rough idea of Saotome's fighting-style so he could train Ryoga to counter it effectively.

"I've got enough bad karma as it is," Yusuke grumbled while Ryoga looked at him in a dumbed fashion, "So shall we head off to this dance V.I.P-style and show this Saotome-guy who's top dog around these parts."

"You mean right now?!" Ryoga hadn't been expecting to face the bane of his existence so soon.

"Yeah. I'm itching for a decent warm-up," Yusuke smirked.

Oh. Yusuke wanted to take on Saotome. That was good.

"Oh. Well you see I'm not sure how to get back to Nerima," Ryoga murmured timidly, becoming increasingly uncomfortable at an alarming rate from the incredibly defined deadpanned gaze Yusuke bored into him with, "What?" He shifted in his spot nervously, feeling his IQ drop from such a stare that told him he totally wasn't getting something which was plainly obvious.

To Yusuke, that confirmed it.

Ryoga was absolutely retarded.

Yusuke pointed to the ground, promptly causing Ryoga to follow his finger, "You're in Nerima."

"What!?" He shot to his feet like a jolt of lightning, "You serious!?"

"Yeah dude! You've been here all along."

"What are we waiting for!? Akane needs me! Let's go!"

"Now you're talking!" Yusuke hollered cheerfully, moving over to the door, patiently holding it open until his new disciple in ass kickassery was equipped in his travel pack and weighted umbrella. Once he was sure he would follow, he bolted through it, only making it to the top of the staircase before he realized Ryoga had, in fact, not followed.

He traced his Ki-signature back to the bathroom, shoving the door open to find Ryoga staring off into space in lost confusion, "Yo!" He said to draw his attention and Ryoga glanced over with him with a brightened visage, "What gives? Why ain't you following?"

Ryoga glanced down, twiddling his thumbs, "I got lost…"

…

…

"In a furo?"

"I'm terrible with directions, okay!"

"Ryo, there's only one way out besides the windows!" Yusuke argued and Ryoga slumped in surrender, "How dumb do you have to be to get lost in a furo!? Gah, you're hopeless," When Ryoga visibly shrunk in on himself, Yusuke's expression softened. He was explicitly self-conscious. The very last thing he needed was harsh ridicule. Yusuke was an asshole, but even he wasn't that cold to put down someone who didn't have much confidence in himself to begin with, "Ah, it's fine."

Ryoga lifted his head back up with hopeful eyes, "Sensei?"

Sensei, eh?

That was kind of nice to hear.

"You should at least know where the Tendo Dojo is, right?"

"Ehhh."

Of course.

Oh well. He would probably remember on the way out.

What was the worst that could happen?

XxX

They could teleport from one country to another.

Yusuke wasn't sure how Ryoga had pulled it off, but somehow he conjured up a portal in the form of an blinding white light without doing anything other than walking with no real purpose, transporting them not only from Tokyo, but also Japan itself to the Big Apple of gigantic towering skyscrapers and busying streets of onrushing civilians.

"Ryo…"

Ryoga yelped. The annoyance was prevalent and tangible like a lifeform itself in his sensei's strained voice of irritation disguised as patient calm.

"Yes, Sensei?"

"We're not in Tokyo, are we?"

"No, Sensei."

"We're not even in Japan, are we?"

Ryoga could have sworn he could hear snickers of mockery from the statue of liberty itself as he sighed in resignation.

"No, Sensei."

"Right."

An inhale was the only warning Ryoga got.

"How the hell did we end up in New York City?!"

"I told you, I was bad with directions!"

"This is not some place you just mislead anyone to from Japan, genius!"

"What do you want from me?!"

"Gah, you're hopeless!"

XxX

"That's the last time I ever let you take the lead," Yusuke declared as the two touched down from the sky, smirking in despite of the restriction.

"Look, I said I was sorry alright!" Ryoga defended, straightening himself from being carried by his adaptable master. It was a good thing Yusuke could fly otherwise it would've taken them ages to get back to Japan, nevermind Tokyo.

"Aw, don't worry about it." He couldn't stay too mad at his new disciple. Although he had messed up transporting them to America by sheer inconvenience Ryoga insisted to right his wrongs and adamantly tried to teleport them back to their country of birth. He didn't have any control of his hidden skill and just ended up materializing them just about everywhere that wasn't Japan, one of those locations being a Strip Club and the two got two separate free lap dances for their troubles.

"Besides," Yusuke jerked a thumb upward, promptly causing Ryoga to follow it to a sign above with the surname of his beloved embedded in Kanji, and Ryoga froze, "We're here now."

"Oh?" Words escaped him from the vast unexpectedness of arriving at their destination from just returning to their country.

"C'mon," Yusuke nudged his head toward the dojo doors, "Let's go. Your girl awaits."

Ryoga flushed, face turning beet red, "Right…"

The two strolled through the huge double temple-like stone metal doors of the dojo, stopping at the front entrance to the estate itself. A set of knuckles rapped nonchalantly against the Japanese door, but there was no answer.

"No one's home?" Ryoga murmured, disappointment colouring his voice.

"Shouldn't be. Can sense a buncha folk inside," Yusuke stated casually, rekindling Ryoga's hope. He knocked again, this time more impatiently, "Hey, open the door, damn it! You got company!"

Ryoga cringed from Yusuke's brazen command, "Sensei." It borne results, though.

Not after Yusuke's decidedly rude call, did the door slide open, revealing a pair of soft chestnut coloured eyes shining with hesitance at his obvious belligerence. It caused him to feel bad. Frightening wallflowers definitely wasn't any semblance of an idea for amusement of his. Although he didn't have Kuwabara-level, or even Hiei-level of honour, he liked to think he had enough morals that he left most women to themselves, and by most, he meant the ones who weren't tomboyish and masculine enough to take a swing at him.

"Yes?" She asked, looking docile.

Yusuke mustered up a sheepish grin, "My bad, lady. Got a little impatient."

Confusion was evident in her eyes of unsullied purity, "I… see," She assured, entirely uncertain. A radiating smile of politeness took shape on her dazzling face, "And you are sir?"

"Sorry, Kasumi-san." Kasumi brightened in recognition, giving Yusuke all the proof he needed to know they were most likely at the right place. Or at least somewhere with people Ryoga knew. She slid open the door fully which previously blocked her view of the boy as well her own appearance.

She was dazzling as Yusuke expected, though there was a distinct conservative and innocent nature about her which kept the normally perverted young man from ogling at her natural beauty. Chocolate brown hair was kept in a loose ponytail tied in a baby hair scrunchy, which marched a long, baby blue dress that fell past her knees, covering her curvaceous figure and a white apron fell over her normal attire.

All in all she looked like she would make the perfect wife for someone soft-spoken like Kurama.

"Oh Ryoga-kun!" She brightened, hugging her hands to her face before lowering them to her waist, still grasping them together, "It's been so long since we last saw you. I'm sure Ranma-chan has been missing you. You two were always such good friends."

"Yeah, right. Friends," Ryoga muttered sarcastically. Leave it to Kasumi to see the best in any relationship, even if it were mostly comprised of toxicity like his and Ranma's. He just ignored Yusuke's teasing elbow nudges and snickers entirely.

Kasumi turned her polite smile to him, "And who might you be, sir? A friend of Ryoga's?" She asked with a nod to no one in particular, "It's always nice to meet new people."

"Well actually, Kasumi-san, he's my-."

"Big brother!" Yusuke quickly cut in, shocking Kasumi and most noticeably, Ryoga himself, ignoring the latter's utterance of "what" and instead wrapped an arm around his shoulder, "And as any good big bro, I figured, hey, why not check out the folk my little bro's so hung up on."

"Oh my!" She gasped and Ryoga almost thought Yusuke had insulted her intelligence somewhat with his dubious lie, until she spoke up again, "I never realized Ryoga-kun had a brother. He does take after you. You both have fangs!"

The supposed brothers blinked blankly, taking a moment to scrutinize the other and see each of their fangs protruding from their lips, "Huh?" Ryoga tossed up a shrug, "You're right."

"Oh my! It's nice of you to introduce us to your family, Ryoga-kun," Kasumi gushed in a gentle fashion and Yusuke thought she looked absolutely adorable as she maidenly held a palm against her cheek, swaying lightly in a breeze that never was, "I'm certain Ranma and little sister will be just thrilled!"

"Speaking of which!" Yusuke chose that convenient moment to step straight to the chase, rubbing his hands together, "Mind pointing us in their direction?" He tilted his cheek Ryoga's way, grinning mischievously to his dry expression, "Big bro's real eager to meet his little bro's pals."

Concern marred Kasumi's picturesque countenance of a proper lady, "Oh, they're out back, but…" The implications went unsaid, but echoed audibly all the same.

"What?" Ryoga wondered, lost as to what the maiden was hinting at, "What's going on, Kasumi-san?"

Luckily, Kasumi's light probing didn't escape his unofficial older sibling's watch and he was on hand to summarize them without even taking a step toward the bush, sighing at Ryoga's explicit lack of perception, "Something's going down out back and they're in the thick of things."

The bandanna-clad warrior's eyes dilated, "What?" He hurried a frantic gaze to a startled maiden from the hasty turn of his head, "What's going on out there Kasumi-san?"

She glanced down the hallway, then back to the de-facto brothers, repeating the process several times in a futile attempt to gather her words, her gaze becoming more uncertain with each turn, "Grandfather Happosai, he…"

That was the only piece Yusuke acquired to finish the puzzle and politely urged the struggling young woman to cease her explanation with a raised hand, "Ah, I see what's happening here," He stated and invited himself in, scooting past the puzzled Kasumi with Ryoga snapping at his heels.

"You do?" He asked.

"Uh-huh," He made a nonchalant sound of approval, "Before I met up with your lost-ass, I came across that Ranma-guy you're obviously hung up on," He shrugged, laughing off Ryoga's pout of annoyance, "Wasn't sure he was the same dude you were bitching about til' we got here, but since you at the helm got us everywhere but here, I decided, 'what the hay, it's worth a shot at this point."

"So that's why we made it straight here when we landed from flight." Ryoga concluded as an afterthought, hand on his chin, "Thought that was odd."

"Yep." There was no semblance of urgency in either's stride despite their awareness of the possible situation Ranma was in. Both hands of the young hybrid remained nonchalantly in his pockets as he led his disciple to the abundance of reiki-signatures, currently residing in the back garden and the living room. Because the living room's porch led to the garden two audience members borne a perfect front row view of the conflict out back, sniveling under the table and hugging the table cloth to their faces like frightened children.

Yusuke spared them a glance of complete disdain, not even widening with any feigned semblance of shock at the panda that cowered next to a raven-haired man garbed in a Karate Gi. If Ryoga could become a piglet then it was reason enough to assume there were other cursed animal-based springs in Jusenkyo.

Had he stared a bit longer, he might have seen the sign that emerged from the shelters of the table from the panda's paw, *Who's he?*

"I have no idea," The raven-haired man answered, surprisingly calm. He studied Ryoga's figure flanked to the unknown youth's side perceptively, "A friend of the lad's, perhaps?"

One of the attendants of the battle between what could have been considered beauty and the ugly in Yusuke's sentiments was the first one of the four to take note of the two, her puzzled countenance brightening at Ryoga.

"Oh Ryoga!"

"Akane-san!"

Yusuke could see what his disciple saw in the girl that triggered his hormones so. Beauty ran in the Tendo family, or at least among the sisters. She had a slender, curvy figure, decently sized double C-cup breasts and neat shoulder-length raven hair, dressed in a yellow sunflower dress, over a white-collared blouse buttoned up with a red bow, and shoes that matched her bow in colour.

Typical girly-girl, Yusuke mused, but considering Ryoga's introvert personality, it was understandable why he would have a boner for those types of girls.

"What are you doing here?" She questioned happily, waving him over.

"Well, I," He fumbled, face turning red as he pushed his index fingers together.

The person beside Akane, another girl with a spatula branded upon her back as though it were a weapon, seemingly took pity on him, switching the subject to something just as fascinating as Ryoga's reason for coming to the Tendo Dojo at this time of all, "Who's he?" Direct, Yusuke could certainly appreciate that. Unfortunately, he ignored her in favour of stepping on to the battlefield, and by that point everyone just ceased in their actions to stare blankly at the wandering young man, even the two combatants which were, weirdly enough, an incredibly short elder and a girl with the same distinct braided hairstyle Ranma had earlier, only hers was an exotic bright red and not onyx.

It was so bizarre, even for them and they were attuned to the unusual. Eccentricity had become the norm in their daily day to day lives and normality was the odd crazed exceptional that had them taking a pause to ponder an occurrence that shouldn't have needed to be thought over.

The situation before them now was anything but normal, but it was also too far from their extended range of ordinary that they couldn't just pass it off as 'Seen it all before.'

They were some crazed loons buzzing around the neighbourhood, the redhead mused, but the guy sauntering between the conflict between her and the smurf old man had to take the cake. Even the usual nutjobs who took front row to the mayhem she created never got between her and a fight.

'Gee. Nerima has another nutjob on the loose. Big surprise,' She mused dryly, watching the apparent knight in green approaching her arch nemesis with an unfeeling detached aura about him, 'What the hell does he think he can accomplish anyway? Guy's gonna get sent flying.'

The diminutive elder didn't know what to make of the young man with the balls large enough to confront him. His energy signature felt oddly, and, terrifyingly, similar, but he couldn't get a good reading out of it with him suppressing it as skilfully as he did. That alerted him, but he hadn't been alive for decades to fear the first skilled fighter in sight. He merely had him on edge, discreetly of course.

"Whaddya need, fella?" The old man asked croakily, the huge shadow of the muscular teen shrouding his tiny body. He glanced up, tipped his head off to the side in confusion, grasping at straws to the young man's intentions, "You here to help that disrespectful, Ranma?"

Ranma cringed from Happosai deduction, "No way! Like I need anyone's help getting that Pressure Point Chart from ya, you old freak!"

"Well you can't have it!" He waved a four-sided folded up piece of paper in his hand before flicking his head away from the young man eyeballing him in disdain.

"I said I don't need a hand!"

"Oh give it a rest, Ranma!" Akane commanded irritably, "What if he's strong, huh? He might be able to help you get the Pressure Point Chart off of Grandfather Happosai, idiot!"

Ranma rounded on her with a scathing glare, "Well, s'cuse me for having pride, Miss Damsel!" She knew she had once again placed the top edges of her foot right in her mouth when Akane's expression immediately darkened in shades of malevolent angry, promptly getting her to sweat and back up, "Oh boy."

"Hmuph. Serves you right you damn ingrate!" Ryoga chimed in, flicking sympathetic glances to the enraged raven-haired girl.

"Sorry, Ranma-honey. You're on your own here," The chef declared sympathetically, but somehow Ranma felt that was a subtle jab at her declaration of pride moments before as the chef grinned sheepishly in Akane's direction.

"Ukyo..."

"Ranmaaaaaa-!"

"Both of you, give it a rest already!" Yusuke shouted, impatience clear in his tone as the attention was brought back to him. Even Akane's rage spilled out of her from the shock of hearing any guy tell her to essentially put a sock in it when she was angry. Yusuke finally removed a hand from his pocket and belligerently scratched his scalp in annoyance before lowering it pointedly in Happosai's direction, "Both of you are a pain. Sheesh." He flicked, shrouding his hand in a blur of untraceable speed, which only lasted a second before he sheathed his hands into the holsters that were his pockets once again.

He nodded, seemingly satisfied with whatever he had accomplished before he turned away from the elder, approaching the redhead.

"What?" Happosai uttered, baffled from the teen's one-handed spontaneous display of Ranma's trademark Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire technique, "Say, whatcha do that for, fella?" He failed to gain even so much as a careless shrug of indifference in reasoning from the green-clad warrior approaching the redhead.

Ranma could have done without it. Seeing the boy making his way over to her reminded her ego of its biggest pet peeve; people stepping into her business as if she needed their aid, "And you!" She extended an index finger sharply in the young man's deadpan face, "What's the big idea butting into things that don't concern you?! I can take that old man AND get the Pressure Point Chart off of him just fine on my own!"

Happosai shook his head, feigning pity, "Is your pride really so important that you would turn away assistance, Ranma?"

"You shut up!"

"Make me!"

"Why you…" She pressed forward to make good on her threat, though was impeded by the young man's arm, "What now?!"

Yusuke made a beckoning motion with his palm.

"What are you getting at?" She asked blankly, having her answer in the form of a hard-scolding tap shove to her forehead from the young man's fingers, promptly getting to cover her forehead as tears sprung to her eyes, "Hey, what'd you do that for?" It was most likely because of her strength was sapped, but that had really hurt.

"Drop the superman-act already," Yusuke told her, pressing a finger to her forehead which caused her to back up slightly, "Nothing wrong with having a helping hand," Before he continued, he casually brandished the very folded up piece of paper the elder had been holding like a vital piece of dirt to blackmail someone, causing everyone to widen their eyes, "Especially when it gets shit done faster."

"When did he-?" Ukyo hurried, glancing around her hastily as though she would spot a gadget that would allow Yusuke to materialize people's possessions like a magician pulling materials of substantial mass out of his sleeve, seeing no such artifact.

Akane was the one who borrowed the omnipotent sensation that so often eluded their small neighborhood known as common sense and reached the logical conclusion, "I got it! It was when he flicked his hand!" A brief flashback of Yusuke blurring his palm before the elder ran through everyone's minds at present, "He moved it so fast we thought he was doing Ranma's kachu tenshin amaguriken one-handed when really, he was snatching the Pressure Point Chart off Grandfather Happosai!"

"Guess that's Sensei for you," Ryoga said, with surprising pride shining through his offhanded remark.

Ukyo turned to him with interest. 'Sensei?'

"So?" Waving the folded up chart lightly in front of the dazed blank face of the beautiful redhead snapped her back into reality, promptly getting her to extend her palms out in acceptance, "Am I right or am I right?"

Well he didn't have to sound so full of himself, the jerk, "Yeah, I guess," Words eluded her as she felt her ticket from weak hell land on her open palms, "Thanks," Before he could get too pleased with himself, Ranma felt it was important to let him know his overall assistance wasn't needed, just appreciated, "Still coulda gotten it myself, though, and don't you forget it pal!"

He smiled in reminiscence of her ego, "Sure."

"Noooooo!" After a seeming decade passed, Happosai was finally up to speed and aware of his stolen invaluable dirt on the redhead, "That's not fair! You cheated, cheater!" He whined petulantly, stomping his little feet on the ground, "You can't just take things from an little old man, you big meanie!"

"Give it a rest, old man!" Yusuke commanded in irritation as he pinched the bridge of his nose. How could anyone be so old yet so immature was beyond him. Essentially, he was a five-year old trapped in the body of an elder, the poster guy of manchild. It was downright pitiful and most of all, annoying, "You had your fun. Now it's time to give the hot babe with the nice rack her power back." He didn't mean to rhyme, but he did.

Ranma cringed from Yusuke's witty description of her while Ukyo glared at him, "I'm a guy!" She was ignored completely by the decidedly perverted young man beside her, who had more pressing issues to handle, like defending himself from Happosai's sudden enraged lunge.

"I'll teach ya to respect your elders, ya whippersnapper!" He raged, pushing off of the ground with enough force that his leap to the upstart youth looked like a flight charge.

All it took was the underside of Yusuke's knuckles to end the elder's resistance. A simple gesture the equivalent of someone knocking on a door, but the sheer kinetic force behind the seemingly simple door knock tap on the back of Happosai's head sent him plummeting _through_ the ground itself, creating a hole the size and shape of his tiny frame.

0…0

0…0

0…0

0…0

'He…' Ranma began to muse, eyes wide with comical shock, shakily shifting her gaze to the crater the seemingly unconscious elder lied in, hearing no signs of movements or sounds to indicate he was good to go for a round two, 'Just KO'd the old freak with a tap.' She glanced back to Yusuke with a renewed perception of wonderment, 'What is this guy?'

"Well that was easy,' Yusuke shrugged, "No wonder the old timer capped off your strength, babe. He's weak as hell." He rose an eyebrow when the raven-haired man and panda previously cowering under the table materialized before him in dutiful bows, "Okay."

"My liege." The raven-haired man addressed him formally.

*We'll follow you forever.*

'What the hell was that?' Yusuke mused, glancing at the panda's supposed way of communicating funnily, 'That was some Wild Coyate shit.' He looked over near the porch to see Akane massaging her temple in irritation and the chef stifling a giggle behind her palm.

"...Dad," Akane grouched.

"Pops and Mr Tendo are scared spitless of the old freak," The redhead offered as an explanation, tossing up a shrug as Yusuke glanced back at her, "They probably see ya as their white knight in shining armour for handing him his ass six-ways to Sunday, pal."

"Uh-Huh." Yusuke uttered disinterestedly, "Cool story. Anyway. Need to put my little bro Ryo through his paces, so now that you got your thing Red, I think we'll be leav-." As he turned on his heel to leave, he was anchored in place by both man and panda hugging his legs like frightened children, "Gah, leggo!"

"My liege!" Mr Tendo beseeched.

*Don't leave us!* The panda's sign read with his pleading expression.

"Dad, quit it!" Akane commanded, "You're embarrassing us!"

"I'm sorry, Akane," Soun Tendo acknowledged, still grasping at the right leg of the powerhouse youth capable of crushing his cruel master, "But if the lad leaves the master will just wake up and punish us for his humiliation!" Flashes of Happosai torturing his family with childish pranks ran through his mind, promptly causing him to exclaim theatrically, "Oh the horror!"

*That's why we can't let the boy leave.* Another sign of the panda read in explanation.

"Gah!"

"So what're you gonna do now, Mr White Knight?" Ranma asked mockingly following Yusuke's sign of acceptance.

"To hell with it. It'll be a place to crash without having to set up camp outdoors or purchasing a room in some dinky motel," He reasoned, brightening the expressions of Soun and the panda.

"You mean you'll stay?" Soun asked hopefully.

Yusuke smirked, "Yo, Ryo! Take a load off! We're setting up stay!"

Ryoga stiffened at the prospect of essentially living with his crush, "Uh, yeah Sensei," He turned a lovestruck gaze to the raven-haired beauty, 'I'm gonna be staying in the same house as Akane!~' She noticed his gaze but not the tangible affection behind it and smiled kindly at him, twisting his heart in knots, 'Oh thank you, Sensei! You really are the greatest guy I've ever met!'

"Thank you, my liege!" Soun wailed, pressing himself further against his saviour's limb, and the panda repeated his actions, followed by a sign by way of communication.

*Yes! Pandas everywhere are in your debt!*

"Yeah, yeah."

Yusuke's mild irritation to the two's excessive hero worship of him elicited a giggle out of the redhead, "Well I'm all for you crashing at ours, bud," She began, smirking, "Now I can pay ya back in kind for butting into my fight."

An audible scoff echoed from the porch, "Pull your head out of your ass, Saotome. There's no way in hell you'll ever beat Yusuke-sensei."

"Shows what you know, Pigboy!" The blue-eyed beauty snapped, eliciting a flinch out of the cursed fighter from the nickname as he exchanged a nervous glance with Akane, the raven-haired girl blinking ignorantly at him, "I'll show ya I can _too_ beat your Sensei, easy!"

"Not even in your dreams!" Ryoga shot back confidently, "Sensei could beat you with one-arm tied behind his back!" He smirked at Ranma's flinch of insulted pride, "Show him Sensei!"

"Na."

"Ha! You see! You're not even worth the effort of pummelling!"

"He just said no, blockhead," The redhead deadpanned.

"And that's because-. Wait, what?" He glanced hopefully at his master, but he only waved his palm in dismissal.

"Not interested."

"But Sensei, what happened to 'Showing Saotome who's top dog?'"

"That was before I knew she was a smokin' hot babe!"

Cue dramatic face-faults in perfect unison from everyone who had heard Yusuke's change of interest in the red haired beauty, his goofy leering smile only made the situation that much more awkward, which only further fueled the fires in Akane and Ukyo.

"Oh, you pervert!"

"You do know she's a _guy,_ right!?"

"Yeah, she's got a guy form, which she isn't in right now." So it was fine to admire her beauty, and what a beauty she was, too. Hourglass figure, D-cup breasts, Ranma's girl form could have given any beauty pageant contestant a serious run for their money. Unlike her male form, which had a darker, tanned complexion her girl side had a lighter, fair-skinned complexion that complemented the exotic red of her hair. All in all she was gorgeous and since she lacked the conservative innocence of Kasumi Yusuke had no qualms ogling her.

"You know about the curse?"

"Yeah. Got the gist of the Jusenkyo voodoo stuff from Ryo. I recall seeing ya earlier with hothead over there as a dude and figured you had one too."

"How did work that out?"

"Oh! That's easy. I'm not an idiot..."

Enough said. That was all that needed to be said.

"Yeah. That would do it for ya."


	2. Diehard Loyalty

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma or YuYu Hakusho**

* * *

xXx

 **Chapter Two**

xXx

* * *

Yusuke Urameshi was the single-handed most fascinating guy Ranma had ever known, the gender-bent martial artist decided, eyeing the older male from his usual walking perch atop the thin railing of the canal's fence with his hands in his pockets. He had power, more power than Ranma could even comprehend, but he didn't flaunt it.

He found his girl form attractive – which was natural because his female form was admittedly sexy, in his not-so modest opinion – but that admission came hot on the heels of the reveal that he was aware his two forms of male and female were apart of him, two sides of the same coin.

That was jarring in many ways. Being surrounded by idiots on a daily basis, any person with an above average I.Q was always going to get an raised eyebrow of incredulity out of him to their presence in the crazed neighbourhood of Nerima, but a guy still finding his girl side appealing in looks while being aware that she wasn't – in fact – her own person was a whole other can of what the fuckery.

And unlike the demented diminutive elder of total immorality Yusuke didn't force him in his female side for his own twisted libido pleasure. He playfully requested him to be a girl for him while offering him a glass of cold water to trigger the transformation, but had yet to actually change Ranma against his will. He even let the braided cursed fighter throw the water back in his face, which had the added effects of making Ranma feel like he wasn't an ant in Yusuke's tremendously powerful aura.

Considering Ranma's robust pride, anyone's evasions to wounding it were always going to win them brownie points in his book.

Yusuke was by far the kindest guy that Ranma had ever met, but considering the standards of benevolence that he was comparing him to, that wasn't saying much. It wasn't even a comparison. In fact, it was more of a testament to just how cruel most Nerima residents were if one guy could be seen as cool by actually being nice.

Nicety, such a foreign concept in the district of Nerima.

Ranma didn't even want to think about it anymore.

"Why do ya gotta walk us to school, man?" Ranma asked in annoyance to the young man sauntering beside Akane on the ground. Even if he did find him interesting in the sense that he wasn't a moron with the intelligence of a rock and the insanity of a crazed asylum escapee, that didn't mean he particularly liked being escorted to school like a baby.

You know, because he was prideful and hated hand-holding.

Yusuke tossed up a shrug, "Just doing a solid for Kasumi," He reasoned, "Says you guys are always at each other's throats. She wants me to act as a supervisor so you can both get to school without feeling all ticked off and stuff."

Ranma scoffed, tossing a palm over his shoulder in dismissal, "Oh, please. If Tomboy would learn to keep her panties outta a bunch we wouldn't be 'at each other's throats."

Akane rounded on him defensively, her uniform blue dress billowing in the fabricated breeze of her hasty turn as she held her handbag below her waist with both hands, "Well if a _certain_ jerk would learn to keep his mouth shut I wouldn't get 'my panties in a bunch' like you claim, jerk!" She retorted belligerently.

"Yeah right! Everything ticks you off! You've gotta be the touchiest person I know!" But Ranma wasn't backing down, never realizing he was edging closer to the pit of redundant arguments that so often wastes the time of the combatants who had fallen into it.

And Akane was right there to meet him in the centre, neither realizing the trap they were falling into. The trap that they were justifying Kasumi's intuition of sending Yusuke with them to school, "And you're the most insensitive jer-!" She never got to finish. The presence beside her suddenly spiked, intensifying to the degrees it became tangible and cracked the ground around their feet like spider webs, almost knocking Ranma off balance from the unexpecting tremor of his fence.

They were stunned into silence, gazes locked apprehensively to their stilled unmoving escort standing within the gaping pit he spontaneously created with barely a flick of his muscles, the short bangs of his hair shadowing his eyes.

"Hey, idiots!" He raised his voice with authority, "You might wanna stop and think for a sec that maybe tearing into each other about who starts it between you is going to prove Kasumi right!" He lurched his head up and both students saw the faintly scarlet glow of rage within the pupils of his eyes, passing it off as just that; the extremity of his annoyance physically changing his body.

"You're right," Yusuke's wave of malevolent rage had washed the righteous fury out of Akane, leaving her soaked in remorse, lowering her head from Yusuke's scolding gaze, "I'm sorry, Urameshi-san."

Yusuke heaved a sigh from the pit of his gut and ran a hand through his raven hair, gaze softening, "Look, I know s'not really my place to say, but you oughta hold off on the wedding bells."

Akane flicked her head back up, startled, "What? But why? Urameshi-san-?"

"Oh, don't gimme that tsundere junk," Yusuke returned, making a face as he threw a hand of dismissal over his shoulder, "You don't get along," He pocketed his hands in his reasoning, straightening his now calmed posture, "Trying to tie the knot around your fingers would just be suicidal at this point.

She made a forward gesture with her body, indicating that she wanted to contest the matter further, that his opinions on her engagement to Ranma being too early were wrong, that maybe they were ready, that maybe she- but then she stopped herself mid thought to linger at the latter stages of her argument because she knew, her feelings for the cursed fighter were nowhere near that strong for him. Nowhere near. She definitely cared for him, but more as a close friend she knew for months than as a potential engaged girlfriend.

Until she could say only death could keep them apart, she knew her argument held no weight and folded in, reluctantly receding in on her argumentative advancement on Yusuke and glanced away from the older teen as palpable sorrow shone in her eyes.

"Take it from someone who knows, kids," Yusuke remarked, spoke in a manner that didn't patronize them, but let them know they were listening to the advice of a seasoned veteran, a thumb jerked at his posture, "Rushing into a commitment so early on is the quickest way to ruin a relationship. Want my advice? Scrap the honeymoon plans 'til you finish college. Go on a few dates," He shifted a glance to Ranma, grimacing at his look of awkward shock at the mention of a date, "Show the lady a good time, y'know, test the waters to see if you can make the relationship work because I guarantee, if you rush into marriage without doing the prep work first, you're gonna regret it." They would ultimately end up having a bitter divorce.

"D-Date!" Ranma stuttered in his cringe, eliciting a glare from Akane.

Yusuke sighed once again, scratching his scalp in befuddlement. They weren't past first base and yet their fathers thought they could wed? Crazy, "Yeah, you aren't ready for marriage yet." He pocketed his hands and straightened, moving five feet ahead of them, giving them the small amount of privacy they needed to sit on his words of wisdom crafted from personal experience.

They exchanged glances and conveyed the discussion they wanted to have in one prolong stare, their gazes saddening in remorse before they turned away from the other.

'He's right.' Ranma mused, 'I don't wanna marry Akane.' He never did. Over the course of several months whenever he felt like they had made progress in their forced relationship, that they had bridged gap of hostility between them, something always happened to render the moment of breakthrough ineffective, like Ranma putting his foot in his mouth and angering Akane or his other suitors making an advance on him and triggering Akane's temper, pushing them back to square one.

No matter what they went through, the polite distance between them never shortened... Not even a little.

He had desired for so long now to end the engagements, not just to Akane but to his other suitors too, to be free, but he was trapped in an infinite loop and try as he might he had never managed to end the rut that his life had become.

But maybe, with Yusuke's gentle push, he could liberate himself from the chaos that chained him down, "Listen Akane, I.-"

"Ranma-airen!"

Or not.

Yusuke flickered to Ranma's side, yanking the cursed fighter from his perch before a similarly blue-haired girl could land the wheel of her bike square on his face, and the sudden loss of target caused the girl to fumble dangerously on the railing. With a cry, she flipped from her seat, making explicit sure to grab the package in her basket in her aerobatic move, and landed on the ground before the three teens in a kneel.

"You okay?" Yusuke asked kindly, though his fellow raven-haired teen hastily righted himself.

"I-I'm fine!" He hurried, edging out of Yusuke's personal space, flicking uncertain glances to him everyone so often, 'Rats. Where'd that come from?' And he wasn't referring to the spontaneous assault from a suitor either. That was a given. He was used to tanking abuse frequently. It barely fazed him anymore. No one ever pulled him out of the danger zone, though, like Yusuke just had and he didn't know how to react to it.

So he didn't. Other than exchanging awkward glances to Yusuke's nonchalant face Ranma forgone trying to appropriately wonder rather someone helping him out with his woman problems was a good thing or bad and instead focused on the bicycle-riding girl, who was glaring in Yusuke's direction.

"What you doing?" She demanded, in Japanese that was decidedly broken.

Yusuke gave her a quick one-over, discreet enough that only someone of Ranma's perception noticed him checking the feisty blue-haired foreigner out. It was just as well too, Ranma mused, because if Akane noticed him ogling Shampoo he would have had to dealt with her nagging at him, but considering how he had kept them both in line so far, Ranma doubted he would have trouble doing do.

Regardless of her poor grasp of the Japanese-language, she was beautiful, with a similar curvaceous figure as girl Ranma, shapely legs and even biggest breasts. It must be something in their nutrition because all the girls in this district were every pervert's wet dream being drop dead gorgeous. Shampoo's ethnicity shone brightly in her style, fashioning two Chinese-styled buns on top of her long sea blue coloured hair which fell to her mid back, sporting a bright purple, short-sleeved silk Chinese shirt followed by matching cropped pants and red pump-shoes on her feet.

"Making sure my friend doesn't get his face flattened," Yusuke deadpanned, either disregarding or not seeing the widen of Ranma's eyes, "And you are doing?"

"Don't get smart with Shampoo!" She demanded, referring to herself in the first person as her glare on the smart-mouthed youth intensified, "Almost lost customer's meal because stupid-boy move airen out the way."

"Uh-huh," He nodded along sarcastically, disinterest unhidden in his tone. No time passed at all when he realized what the girl had referred to herself as in the first person and he livened in curiosity, "Wait! Did you just seriously call yourself 'Shampoo'?" He asked, the narrowing of her glare seemingly being his only answer, "Hahaha, dayum!~ What a dumb name!" He laughed, doubling over, "I mean, seriously! Who names their kid Shampoo?"

Akane and Ranma stared awkwardly at the ridiculing hybrid at his reaction to learning the Amazon's 'name' that was markedly outside the norm. Being an asshole was common in the area of crazy, but acknowledging the Amazon's name as bizarre strangely wasn't.

It was, now that they thought about rationally.

"Uh," Ranma let out, giving a shrug and a scratch of his scalp as he looked over to the mocked warrior girl, whose face was flushed red in embarrassment, "He does kinda have a point, 'Shamps. Kinda weird your tribe would call themselves after hair products."

"It Amazon nickname, stupid-boy!" Shampoo clarified defensively, a moment away from charging at the nasty Japanese citizen.

"Uh-huh. Oh yeah," Yusuke tittered, straightening himself and flicking a loose tear of hilarity from his eye with the tip of his index finger, "I take it all the higher-ups in your clan all get together at a newborn's ceremony and discuss which hair brand would be the most prestigious to name the new kid after, huh?"

Ranma barely stifled his laughter, tittering explicitly behind his palms, "Now that was a good one!"

"Ranma!" Akane admonished as if she expected better from him.

"What?" He challenged, "Don't tell me you expected better from _me,_ Akane! Y'know, the guy who talks smack regularly."

The answer was no, she shouldn't have expected him to raise above slanders, when he talked-the-talk almost everyday when the opportunity presented itself. Everyone knew that. He was practically infamous for slandering contenders willing to step to him on the proverbial mic. A wise guy who also had the walk to back up his talk. Really, Akane shouldn't have been surprised to hear his appreciation of a catchy taunt.

"Right. You're also a jerk relating to your fellow jerk in your jerk pond!" She grumped, but the boys only firmly grasped the other hand with an audible clap with grins on their faces in a warm-hearted show of solidarity.

Shampoo was enraged. It was exasperating on its own listening to the insolent young man's belittling of her tribe's traditions, but to amuse her beloved with his insulting remarks was a whole other level of mind-inducing fury. It was also a little heart-breaking seeing her beloved Ranma taking amusement in her tribe's slandering, but she disguised her sadness well.

She wasn't just some thin-skinned average jane of a girl. She was a warrior, hailing from a long line of renown females. She would not disgrace her tribe by showing hurt in such a contemptible manner as being too emotionally fragile to endure a few petty remarks.

"How dere you insult Amazonian tribe!" She accused, very much intending to get even with the smart-mouthed vermin. She found a conveniently placed high patch of earth to rest the customer's meal upon before turning purposefully in Yusuke's direction, her body poised.

"Oh, no! I insulted the all-important Amazon babes!" Yusuke continued to sneer in absolute dismissal of Shampoo's threatening posture, "Better dial witness protection. I'm boned otherwise! Hahaha!"

"You vermin!" She rushed him, closing the distance separating them in a matter of seconds lightyears too long to ever catch the hybrid, slamming a forward lunge through his sternum to disperse his form like a fog of mist, "Huh?" She wondered blankly, diligently checking her flanks for any hint of the alleged teleporter's positioning.

"He's over there," The voice of her beloved, spoken plainly, pointed her in the right direction, helped by his finger. Shampoo righted herself, looking over her shoulder, dilating her eyes in horrified shock at her target procuring the meal of her customer.

"Ah! What stupid-boy doing!"

"This what you're making a fuss about?" Yusuke asked, feigning curiosity with his devilish intentions in mind. He tore the wrapping off of the package to reveal a bowl of steamy cooked ramen concealed in clear-view cling film to give it an extra layer of protection.

"You give that back!" Shampoo demanded, pressing forward hastily, but Yusuke merely jumped a step back, pushing the lower half of his body away from the onrushing girl and holding her in place with a single finger tapped upon her forehead.

"Ah, ah, ah," He requested, almost condescendingly, "Not until you apologize to Ranma for trying to park on his face."

Shampoo felt utterly humiliated, being held off with as little resistance as a finger and told if she wanted her 'toy' back – in the metaphorical sense – that she would have to first own up to her mistakes. She glared bitterly to Yusuke's mocking grin, "Airen let Shampoo do that, stupid-boy."

"Looks like he wasn't expecting it, but okay," He pushed her away, almost sending her stumbling to an unpleasant fall on her behind from his light flick before she was able to right herself. He ripped the cling film off, lowering his nose to the soup and taking in a big whiff, "I'll just have to eat this ramen." He chuckled at her horrified look, "Call it a compromise."

"No!" She roared and lunged once again, promptly getting Yusuke to duck underneath her blow as he ripped the customary chopsticks that were taped to the cling film apart with his teeth and one hand, "Shampoo be in trouble with Grand Grandmother if she don't get that to customer!"

"Cool story, sis." He casually swayed to the side in evasion of Shampoo's charge in perfect unison of twirling a set of noodles around his procured chopsticks before propping it in his mouth, "Hmm, tasty."

"Stop that!" She surged once more and yet again did the elusive theft evade her grapple attempts, curving his body so she would clumsily roll right past him while simultaneously taking in another mouthful of noodles, " _Oh,_ yeah!~ That's the stuff."

'He's not even taking her seriously,' Akane concluded blankly, at a loss for reactions. The confrontation between what could've technically been considered good guy vs bad guy with their companion soundly in the wrong by the bare definition of the word was outlandish; a goofy mess she would expect Ranma to initiate.

For once he was in the front row to the chaos instead of the main attraction and he noticed that odd deviation from the norm too, "Uh," He scratched his scalp, "Kinda freaky I ain't the one out there in the thick of things, but I ain't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth." Lady luck must have finally been smiling on him to throw someone else in the heat of mayhem instead of him.

He watched, with an almost suspenseful eye, as his – friend? – escort frequently angled his stances from each forward push of the tenacious Amazon-warrior, putting himself in the goofiest of poses as he continued to wolf away at the order of Shampoo's customer like he wasn't defending himself from an angry female's fist of righteous vengeance.

"…You, give… Shampoo, that back!" Shampoo demanded, drenched in her own sweat and huffing heavily from exhaustion, hunching over to place her hands on her knees. Yusuke's blatantly loud slurping was only adding salt in her wound at this point. Willing herself, Shampoo dived onward for another bite at the cherry, only for Yusuke to spring directly above her last-ditch leap of faith, slamming his palm on the back of her head to send her crashing face first on the unforgiving concrete ground, presumably knocked out.

Ranma cringed from the rough contact of flesh and solid earth, "Yikes! That's gonna leave a mark." He stated, shaking his head, "Brutal."

Yusuke smiled in mock innocence, but before he could relish on his essentially auto-piloted victory, the loud call of the girl's warrior-nickname resonated in the immediate area, spoken not with concern for her crushing defeat or seemingly unconscious state, but happy recognition of locating her.

"Oh Shampoo, Shampoo!" He made it picture clear his priorities were Shampoo yet he made a bee-line for Yusuke, arms poised to embrace him like he was his beloved and not the guy who just pummelled her with one arm basically tied behind his back, drawing a cringe from the green-clad young man. He composed himself, speedy reflexes matching that of a cat's and hoisted up his leg for the long raven-haired youth to run face first into his sneaker.

"Oh, kay."

"Yeah, that's Mousse for ya," Ranma insisted with a shrug.

Yusuke flinched a bit and turned to stare at Ranma funnily, but the red-clad young man only shrugged his shoulders again, promptly getting Yusuke to look down at the long haired youth with the longest sleeves he had ever lied eyes on, "Just gonna take a wild guess here, but he's an amazon like the chick, and all amazon dudes get named after desserts instead of hair products," He grimaced. The Amazonian's traditions sounded retarded to him, "How's that? Did I hit the nail on the head?"

"Probably," Ranma shrugged, "Anyways, you probably nailed it by now, but Mousse is a short-sighted idiot," He said in explanation of Mousse mistaking Yusuke for Shampoo, "Guy never wears his glasses even 'tho he can't see two miles without 'em."

"What a retard."

"No shit."

"Shampoo?" Mousse wondered, prying his head off of the dirt ground and searching his flanks for his beloved.

"Hey, moron." He wasn't deaf, if his lack of recognition to a unfamiliar aggressive voice was any indication. So there was that silver-lining, "Do I look like a hot big-breasted chick to you?"

His description of Shampoo evoked a cringe from Akane, "Pervert." She was ignored entirely.

Mousse pushed his thick glasses down, and the hazy blur around the lanky young man above him cleared up, allowing him to make out his visage in all its annoyed glory, "You're not Shampoo."

Did this kid just have Shampoo on the brain 24/7? Jesus, "Congrats. You've graduated from retard to idiot." He mocked, tone dry. He gestured to the side of the short-sighted youth with his head, "She's right there poindexter."

She was only a couple of feet from his positioning, but without the consciousness that would have made Mousse relieved to see her. He was still relieved, but his worry took priority, "Shampoo!" He cried, crawling over to her, though on auto-piloted-like instinct she stirred, pushing herself up to her knees and slapping him aside.

"So you're finally re-joining us, eh Sleepy?" Yusuke jested lightly, but she didn't reply nor did she raise her head to meet his gaze as she stayed on her knees, looking terribly resigned, 'Eh? Did I break her?' That sucks. He hadn't meant to destroy her spirit. He just wanted to show her she couldn't walk all over his friend while he was in town.

After what seemed like an eternity, to Shampoo, passed, the Amazon finally stood, and submissively approached Yusuke.

"What?" He asked when she was right in front of him, even going as far as to invade his personal space, "Get any closer I might think you wanna get kinky," She again didn't acknowledge the jest nor meet his gaze, but the air of resignation around her was palpable like the scent of perfume, almost suffocating Yusuke in its depressive aura, 'Ack. Feel like she's about to go emo on me.'

"Hey, Ranma, you don't think…" Akane whispered, paying intensive attention to tense interaction between the muscle and the nimble.

Ranma shrugged, very much as invested in what was about to take place between the two as Akane, "Dunno. Probably."

Yusuke heard them perfectly with his heightened hearing, lifting up his eyebrow when Shampoo finally locked gazes with him and he saw the sorrow shining in her purple eyes. She cupped his cheek, inwardly pleased to find he wasn't resisting her intimate touch, pushing up on her tip-toes to meet his height and pressed her lips against his, much to everyone's shock.

"No way!" Ranma gasped, arms drooped to the ground, "She actually did it!" That was good news for him. That was potentially one fiancée off of his back and two, or three if Kodachi counted herself, to go.

"No…" Mousse murmured in despair, the embrace of lips of his beloved and the youth who had allegedly won her hand driving a dagger in his heart, "Shampoo." The make-out session only lasted a matter of seconds, but those might as well had been the equivalent to years for all the severe anguish amount of years watching Shampoo bestow the kiss of marriage on Yusuke evoked in him.

Shampoo pushed herself away from Yusuke, still looking much subdued as she doodled uncertainly on his chest. Yusuke, for his part, was looking very much perplexed, scratching the top of his head in clear confusion.

"Wǒ de àirén." Mousse gasped in horror at the declaration spoken in their native language that only he could understand, burying his face over his arm, fortunately missing Shampoo burying her head in Yusuke's sternum.

"Japanese or English, lady," Yusuke deadpanned.

"I think she means you're her beloved," Akane offered, drawing a flabbergasted expression from Yusuke.

"What the fuck!?"

Akane pouted. Did he really have to swear at her? She was only trying to help. God, he was more like Ranma than she thought, throwing her help back in her face. No wonder they had managed to kick off their friendship on such a strong foot.

"You serious?" He asserted, snapping back to the apparently lovestruck girl on his chest, grabbing her by one of her shoulders and prying her from his person. She nodded, a scarlet glow flaring brightly on her cheeks, "O… kay…"

"It's cause ya beat her, pal," Yusuke snapped a questioning gaze to his fellow rebellious teenager, "If ya beat an Amazon lady, she's obligated to tie the knot on your finger."

"That's nuts."

"You're telling me."

"Gah!" Yusuke groaned in exasperation, jerking his head back and slapping his palm against his forehead, "Here I am giving you guys a fancy speech about not rushing into marriage and how it can basically screw you over in the long haul, then I go and get engaged to a chick I knew all of five seconds!" The lectured duo were positively beaming with feign innocence from Yusuke's acknowledgement of his own hypocrisy, "Must look like a total hypocrite to you guys, huh?

"Oh, just a little," Akane said sweetly.

"Gee thanks," Sarcastically said, Yusuke returned a natural glance to his apparent wife-to-be who had been staring at him with a doting gaze of loving patience, "Listen, uh… Shampoo."

"Yes, airen?" Oh god. Did that mean beloved? He didn't know. He didn't have grasp on mandarin Chinese. The only foreign language he knew was English.

"I-."

"No!" Mousse interrupted, erupting to his feet in an explosion of defensive fury, "I won't let you take my Shampoo away from me!"

"Stupid Mousse!" Shampoo admonished, snuggling against her new sweetheart's chest to spite the short-sighted warrior, much to said sweetheart's annoyance, "When you learn Shampoo no like you!"

Mousse seethed in rage, either blind to Shampoo's explicit disdain for his possessive attraction to her or disregarding it altogether, "First that sick Saotome bewitches my Shampoo! I won't let her be taken in by another scumbag!" He charged, missing the darkening of Yusuke's eyes, until he was directly behind him, poised to strike and by that point, he froze, 'What?' A wave of immense pressure flooded the proximity around Mousse, causing his legs to tremble as he broke out into a cold sweat. He choked out silently, feeling something metallic, pointy, and sharp ramming through his chest.

Hesitatingly, he placed his palm against his sternum, confirming no such stab wound, 'W-What is this?' He scrambled for answers, terrified as hallucinations of his death played out in virtual reality in the recess of his mind, each one more gruesome than the last. He felt each death blow like it was actually happening, like he was dying and being resurrected in an endless bout of torture.

It was hell.

Worse than hell itself.

'What is this guy?' He sweated, watching with bated breaths to the turn of Yusuke's head, meeting his chillingly cold scarlet eyes possessing a calm fury like that of a storm just waiting to happen. Mousse seriously considered suicide liberation from that terrifying glance of pure malevolence.

"Beat it, asshole." It was a simple command Mousse definitely wasn't going to risk defying.

He scurried off, tail wrapped firmly between his legs. He had never before encountered such a terrifying man, capable of giving him mind-inducing hallucinations just from the sheer intent to wipe him from the face of the earth in his aura alone. He _never wanted_ to feel such hellish pressure again, never wanted to encounter that man again, and most importantly, never wanted to meet that murderous glance again, because he had the sneaking suspicion if he did cross paths with him again he would be his last.

Mousse's forceful departure brought a period of unsettling silence, all eyes apprehensively on the young man who could force another to retreat just by merely glancing his way. Yusuke disregarded their stares for a moment and took in a calming breath, propping himself down to rest his bowl of ramen beside him.

"Airen?" The soft voice of his unofficial fiancée broke him from his muse, promptly getting him to meet her nervous glance. A wave of guilt flooded his conscious. He hadn't meant to frighten her with his little display of malicious authority, just the retard bad-mouthing his friend, "You okay?" She asked gently, propping herself down next to him on her knees.

"Fine." He mumbled succinctly, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wallet, "And stop calling me that! I'm not your beloved or whatever."

Shampoo shook her head adamantly, "No," She denied, "You beat Shampoo. That make you her sweetheart; airen. See?" She graced him with a sunny smile. Yusuke had to hand her brownie points for her tenacity, as well as her translating airen in his native tongue…

Yusuke sighed tiredly, opening his wallet with a click of his teeth. Nothing but dollar bills, usable in American only, was in this particular wallet of his. Figures he would forget to swap out this one with his wallet containing his yen in storage. Oh well, they could exchange fifteen dollars for 11.97 yen.

"Here," He handed her the aforementioned total, much to her puzzled expression.

"What this?" She asked, accepting the set of bills.

"American cash." He said, shaking his head to her tilt of the head, "Sorry. Left my other wallet in my _other_ pair of pants. You can exchange it for yen, right?"

"Yes, but-?" She stopped, ascertaining the reasoning for herself with a glance to the half-filled bowl of delicious ramen noodles at his side. Smart girl, "Oh?" She tried to hand him his money back, "Airen don't-."

"I do," Yusuke gently pushed her hands away, "Shouldn't have ate your customer's order. I was just pissed at you for trying to walk all over my friend."

"Shampoo see." He was protective to those he was associated with. That much was clear from his explanation to her, "Shampoo promise she won't land on Ranma anymore." She was trying to get in his good graces now. She wanted that same warmth of protection her fellow cursed fighter had from her new sweetheart. If his show of malevolence to frighten Mousse was any indication then his aura of benevolence would be something women like her would kill to linger in, and she would do anything to obtain it.

Yusuke tapped her nose playfully, "See that you do, little missy."

She pouted to his show of condescension, "Shampoo not little. She show you she worthy of airen's affection!"

"I look forward to it." He stood, picking up his now official bowl of ramen noodles and making his way back over to his companions, tossing a hand over his shoulder in bidding, "See ya for now, babe."

"Bun-bye airen. Shampoo come see you later."

"Uh-huh." He murmured disinterestedly, stopping before Akane's look of interest. "What?"

"Did you really pay for that?"

"Yeah. What of it?"

"Why, Urameshi-san? I never would have pegged you for the honourable type." She had quite the teasing streak.

Yusuke's next quote would forever engrave himself a permanent spot in Ranma's heart.

"Real men know when to own up to their mistakes. S'that simple."

* * *

XxX

 **Diehard Loyalty**

XxX

* * *

 **That's the chapter, folks. Slow moving, I know, but I want to take my time to establish the characters, flesh out their personalities and conflicts, especially Ranma's. Right now, he/she's socially inept. Loyalty is a concept he doesn't understand in a district where everyone looks out for themselves, leaving him to take all the shit from his suitors. I wanted to take this chapter to show Yusuke's presence alone will initiate change, which will act as a good contrast to Ranma I feel. Ranma, who creates a never-ending cycle of chaos unintentionally, and Yusuke, who ends chaos. He has the assertion Ranma lacks to bring about an end to the mayhem circulating his life.**


	3. The One Who Disrupts the Flow

**Disclaimer: I don't own YuYu Hakusho or Ranma 1/2**

* * *

Something happened. Something thought to be a myth even more untrue than the Tooth Fairy and Father Christmas himself combined. Three words no one, not even Ranma, would ever have the balls to utter to summarize the monumental discovery.

Nabiki was petrified.

Nabiki Tendo, someone thought to be so cold she could have had the moniker "Ice Queen" bequeathed upon her, was stricken with fear, and not just any fear, but the kind of raw, instinctual fear which would prompt her to duck underneath her desk, curl up into a ball, and quiver as though her life depended on it. Of course, she wouldn't be caught dead in her cowardice. She did have an image to maintain and unlike her cowardly father, she was arrogant and despised what she considered to be her inferiors seeing her as anything other than an omnipotent ruler to be feared by all, not fearing.

This was a nightmare. What was Yusuke Urameshi – the demon-like thug rumoured to have been so strong gangs of older kids fell before his feet in total obedience - even doing in her turf anyway? She first received word of Yusuke's infamous name five years ago. Back then, she was just getting into the game on the black market, but it was clear even back then to her superiors in the shady trade that she had talent for this.

They warned her about Urameshi. Thinking back on it now, that should have been one hell of a giant red flag to heed their advice. If illegal risk-takers in their twenties were second-guessing themselves to initiate potential confrontation with a fourteen-year-old boy, then that boy had to be _ungodly_ strong for his age, but she was young and naïve, telling herself the apparent monster taken humanoid form lived in an entirely different district to her, that he would _never_ in a thousand years locate her, and so, she risked it all, betting on each fight young Yusuke got himself into, until _it_ happened.

The assistant she sent out to Yusuke's vicinity returned one night with the most haunted, petrified look she had ever seen in a person's eyes, almost as if she had been given a glimpse of death itself, and spookily told her, "I'm out." It chilled Nabiki to the bone. She was the kind of authoritative young woman who had all her subordinates on lockdown, taking pride in having them under her control, so for someone to frighten them so terribly that they were willing to slip from her thumb, well, it left her panic-stricken.

Nabiki Tendo tended to not like things she couldn't control.

The next day marked the date and month as the time Nabiki felt the **Fear of God** _driven_ into her heart. What her former assistant had neglected to tell her in her fear-induced state was that Yusuke interrogated her, forcing her to reveal their base of operations.

Rude awakening could not have been more appropriate.

Their hideout was a wreck. It was almost like a storm had passed through, which wasn't too far from the truth, Nabiki horrifyingly realized asking a barely conscious, bloodied member of the underground market for clarification. Yusuke beat them up. There had to have been ten fully growth adults in there at the time, yet Yusuke single-handedly _decimated_ them all, procuring their laundry money for himself and leaving them in pools of their own blood.

She never went back.

Nabiki couldn't have been more relieved when she remembered she never disclosed her address to them otherwise she was positive they would have sold her out to save their own skin. Anyone would have. That much was a given.

Since that faithful day, she had been lying low, living on the edge of suspense that the Devil's incarnate would track her down any day and give her what she had coming to her. When years passed without any sign of a handsome youth turning up on her doorstep, she felt it was due for her to relax.

Until she walked down the staircase of her home and found someone who looked strikingly alike to the Devil's incarnate who ruined her, sitting cosily in her living room like he belonged. Needlessly to say, she ducked for cover, diligently listening to the conversations he shared with her sister's fiancée and his rival. She cared little for the fact he had taken it upon himself to train that worthless Hibiki boy. She was more alarmed to discover he had a perverted side to him as he playfully lusted on Ranma's female form.

What if he wanted to have his way with her as a compromise for cashing in on his brawls as a younger teen? The thought both enticingly and horrifyingly crossed her mind. She was a kinky girl by nature, so giving herself to the Devil's incarnate would have been the lesser of two evils, the evils being the punishments, but it still would've pained her to submit. She liked to be the dominant one in relationships. She made herself scarce to her room, her sudden sanctuary, and confirmed his identity from her elder sister, Kasumi, falling into despair shortly after being left alone.

She once again ghosted out of the Dojo at the peak of dawn like a trained ninja, but she knew she couldn't keep it up for long. Yusuke was _now living_ at the Dojo to keep the old fool away, Kasumi clarified. Apparently, Yusuke had been the one to recover the Pressure Point Chart liberating Ranma from weak hell. Heh, she never would have imagined someone as cruel as him would do something decidedly _heroic._ Either way, though, she didn't trust him to grant her leniency given what he had done, even if Kasumi stated he had been nothing but wonderful, but that wasn't saying much.

She saw the positives in everyone, and even if they were none, she made up some that were never there, like in the old fool's case; foolish woman.

"Hey, who's that?" A nondescript student pointed out, curiously peering out of the window from the top floor of the school to the ground below.

Nabiki lifted a brow in interest, leg discreetly trembling atop her knee.

"It looks like a new student." Another one ventured to guess.

The prospect of a new kid coming to the block prompted almost everyone to gather around the window, keen to pick up any half-intriguing things from the supposedly fresh-minted student to gossip about.

One turned to her, "It looks like he's with your sister and her fiancée." Nabiki's eyes flashed wide in horror, her heart tightening. To her, that clarified the identity of the enigma on show. Yusuke Urameshi was out front, and now the question lingered, why? She knew he couldn't have been a student based on her maths. She was twelve when she had received wind of his fourteen-year-old terror, which was five years ago, so now he should be the same age as her eldest sister, nineteen.

He was known for ditching school on a regular basis, which should have ruled out the slim possibility of him saddling up with kids two-to-three his junior to regain his missing education. Nabiki harboured no aspirations of that being the case. As much as she feared admitting it, it was far more likely he was coming for her head.

She was a realist, not an idealist, and as such she would conclude the rational outcome rather than her own hopes and desires.

An unremarkable girl in ponytails flanked to her side, one of her henchwoman, "I take it he will be someone you will control too, Nabiki-sama."

"You fool," Nabiki downplayed miserably, shifting a few eyes her way, "Do you even know who he is?" The question prompted everyone to gape at her with their full, shocked attentions. Someone even the feared mercenary of Furinkan High School was wary of was definitely someone most wanted to avoid, "That's Yusuke Urameshi, demon-like thug of Ebisu."

That did it.

Everyone paled like ghosts, rushing back to the window, suddenly seeing the demonic powerhouse in a cleared perspective; one that was dark and malevolent.

"Oh my god! It's him."

"Yusuke Urameshi!"

"What's he doing here?"

"I dunno, but I heard he once had every gang in Ebisu under his control."

"That's nothing! I heard he has every gang in Tokyo under his command!"

"Yeah, and he has over five hundred thousand gang members at his beck and call!"

"I heard he got fed up of school and beat up the teachers."

"I heard he burned down his school."

"I heard he's in with the mafia."

"I heard he's bribing the police."

And the rumours regarding Yusuke Urameshi's infamy were brought full circle, each one becoming more outlandish than the last.

Nabiki groaned, wishing she could be anywhere but there. More than half those rumours were false and others were entirely exaggerated from Yusuke's thuggish landmarks, but still, it said a great something to Yusuke's notoriety to have gossip of such ridiculous multitudes spewing forth from his rep alone.

"What are we going to do if he comes in here?"

"I don't know!" He looked like he was about to start hyperventilating, tears springing to his eyes as he bit into his blazer.

The ensuring calm that followed from Yusuke's departure after bidding Ranma and Akane farewells could not have been more welcomed at that time. The collective inhales of relief were loudly audible as was the brush of their palms cleaning the sweat from their foreheads.

"Phew. He's leaving."

"Yeah. Guess he was just walking Ranma and Akane to school."

"Thank god," Nabiki grumbled, palming her face in distressed frustration.

This could not be happening.

* * *

 **Coasting Through Life**

* * *

"Is something in the water in this place, Kasumi?" Yusuke asked his temporary travel companion. He had promised to help her with the shopping. Even if Soun assured him he could stay at the dojo free of charge just for acting as an improvised lapdog to ward off their spiteful master, Yusuke still wanted to give something back to compensate for his lack of rent. It just didn't sit well with him merely staying with the Tendo family without helping them out with their finances under the guise of 'protection.' It felt a scumbag tactic and the last thing Yusuke wanted to be after maturing throughout the years was a scumbag.

A bum? Sure. A scumbag? Hell no.

So he set Ryoga the task of simply running in whatever direction he saw - given that he had no sense of direction - with a forty-boulder on his back and set off with Kasumi to help with the groceries.

Kasumi took a moment to bask in the pleasantry of the morning day only she could view in her positive perception of all. The birds chirping away, the light breeze brushing her skin and sweeping her long hair to the side, and the little elder out watering her garden made for a peaceful atmosphere to the young maiden.

"Why, whatever do you mean, Urameshi-kun?" She asked brightly, with a soft melodic voice that could rip the strings right off the heart of a guy like Kuwabara, if he wasn't already with Yukina.

Yusuke messily rubbed the back of his head in his difficult contemplation to summarize his thoughts, "Like everyone around here's a bit… uh-."

"Eccentric?" Kasumi offered, gently cutting in when it was clear he needed help.

Yusuke's facial expression darkened into a hard look of annoyance, "Yeah let's just go with that." He had been thinking more along the vulgar lines of 'bat-shit crazy,' but had to refrain himself. Not only was Kasumi essentially a beefed-up version of an traditional lady, the kind of high class female who had an extreme aversion to swears, he was also trying to be a better person in general.

Kasumi seemed to be considering his viewpoint thoughtfully, "Hmm, I see your point." She looked over to him with an insisting smile, "But I don't believe they're as that noticeable as you're thinking. I believe you just require a bit of time settling in to get accustomed to a few of our neighbours' more… unusual quirks." The polite smile on her face strained just a bit.

As if fate was against her, an obnoxious chant from a widely renown manga series reverberated throughout the air, making Yusuke lift an eyebrow and turn his head to find a cosplayer of a nigh-flawless Rock Lee imitation sprinting toward and passed them with enough force to pick up a huge tornado of dust while bellowing out the aforementioned character's quotes, all on his hands to boot.

"Yoshiiiiiiiiiiii! To Spring time of youth! If I cannot do five hundred laps around Nerima then I must do two thousand push-ups on my thumbs!"

"Uh-huh." Yusuke sarcastically mumbled to Kasumi's reasoning, voice squeaking slightly to the Rock Lee-fanatic. 'Kid even has the get-up, haircut and everything.' Where the hell did he order that spandex anyway? On second thought, Yusuke really didn't want to know.

Kasumi brightened in recognition, "Oh!~ That's just Tadaaki!~ He really is a lovely young man!~"

Yusuke's arms stubbornly went over his chest in a hard, unconvinced stance, "Kid looks like he needs to step outside and socialize more, but okay."

Kasumi shifted her polite smile his way, but Yusuke could tell it wasn't sent in the same manner. It had a distinct all-knowing feel about it. The kind of scolding smile a teacher who expected better from her student would give to him.

"You're being difficult."

Yusuke shook his head with a low yielding sigh, "Sorry." That delicate, subtle approach of reprimanding him had always been much more effective than say, the forceful, direct method of shouting, which only prompted him to either A: Fight back or B: Tune it out entirely. The classic 'I'm not mad, just disappointed' trick that often worked on hard of hearing youths like Yusuke like a charm. Granted, it wasn't that effective when Kasumi used it on him since they had yet to form a connection, but he had clearly made a decent impression on her.

The very last thing he wanted was to sully that image she had of him by being his usual obstinate self.

What could he say?

He had strong opinions.

"That's okay." The rest of their journey onward to their destination continued much in silence with the occasional small talk, with them finding out they both shared the same age of nineteen currently in their lives, Yusuke informing her he had been exploring the world for the past year, Kasumi mentioning she had taken up the mettle of motherly duties in her family since their mother passed away, and other such trivial topics, all with the occasional awkward pause between subjects. Yusuke wasn't much of a conversationalist with those he couldn't already relate with and he couldn't have been more further apart from Kasumi considering what they were.

Him – A slowly redeeming thug with a slight slangy, informal speech pattern.

And her – A sheltered traditional maiden of proper eloquence.

Naturally, finding common ground to broach a conversation was always going to be a difficult endeavour with the two having such widely different backgrounds.

"Here we are," Kasumi smiled in recognition, gazing up with peaceful content to the tall establishment twenty minutes of walking and unsettling silences had brought them to; Best-Buy, largest and most well-known SuperMarket in all of Tokyo, "This is our usual store we frequent to gather our groceries."

"Cool," Yusuke shrugged dismissively, leading Kasumi to the automatic doors of the establishment, "I usually shop here too."

"That's wonderful!" The doors parted to either side as if knowing her positivity, allowing them both to step through and be greeted with a gentle wave of cool air from the store's air-conditioning, "It's so nice to find common ground like this," Considering how mute their interaction had been so far.

"Uh-huh." Each took a steel basket from the stockpile, with Kasumi's hanging delicately over her arm and Yusuke's carelessly on his finger.

Another period of silence reigned supreme between the two, but this one was more mutual, borne not from their lack of empathy, but at their task at hand. They busied themselves rounding up the ingredients, treats, and other such groceries they'd made their trip to Best-Buy for, with Yusuke obviously carrying all of the heavy stuff, leaving the light ones in Kasumi's basket.

"So how were little sister and Ranma-kun this morning?" Kasumi asked, striking up a conversation as she tip-toed in vain to reach a particular item on the top shelf. Yusuke rounded to her side and using his superior reach, scooped the bag of uncooked broccoli from the shelf of the vegetable isle they were in, getting a grateful smile from her for his gentlemanly assistance.

"Fine," He shrugged, looking down at his own basket. Half of it was packed full of junk food, leaving the other half free for carbons of juice for the family and the other heavy items like a whole chicken he didn't feel right letting Kasumi carry, "They're good kids honestly, they just bring out the worse in each other together."

Surprisingly, instead of trying to downplay the negativity in her little sister's relationship with Ranma to accentuate the positives, Kasumi did the opposite to what he expected of her, agreed with him, "Yes, I have had my concerns with little sister's… rather unhealthy relationship with Ranma-kun but I have kept these issues to myself in fear of upsetting Father."

"If you see problems in your kid sister's engagement to her fella you should just come right out and say it," Yusuke insisted and Kasumi pitied his audacity with a small shake of the head, "Hell, it would better if they slowed down on the wedding plans instead of rushing into it. That'll just lead to a stressful marriage life."

This was incredibly ironic. She had always assumed if their fathers had their way and wed them for the unity of their schools that Akane and Ranma would end up having an early, bitter divorce. Kasumi was anything but dumb. What she may have lacked in honed martial arts prowess she more than made up for in intelligence. She observed her sister's interactions with Ranma with a keen eye and would frown in worry at just how anti-productive they remained to building a healthy relationship, but because she was optimistic by nature, though, she'd always adamantly cling to the futile hope that they could salvage common ground to make something work.

It also helped that she did not want to marry a younger man like Ranma.

"I see where you are coming from," She admitted, "I will have to schedule a talk with Father later to a discuss a possible setback date," One hand went to her cheek as she swayed lightly in controlled concern, "Oh my, I do hope Father takes this well."

"He should take it well, presuming he cares for his kid," Yusuke reasoned coolly, "It isn't right forcing her into something she's uncomfortable with for his own number one needs."

"I concur, but Father and Uncle Saotome…" Concern marred her beautiful face, "They have cherished their dream of one day seeing their school unified for long now," She whisked her remorseful gaze away from Yusuke's neutral, unjudging glance, "I am just not sure how they will perceive the news that little sister's and Ranma-kun's engagement may need to be potentially terminated."

"Aw! They can wait a few more years 'til their kids have kids of their own and pair 'em together for unity and stuff. Their kids take priority. That simple. Now, c'mon. Let's gather up the last few bits and bobs and get outta here."

"Okay, Urameshi-kun."

Once again, another session of silence settled between them but much like the last one it was sombre. Kasumi was lost in the melodic woods of her thoughts, contemplating Yusuke's recommendation, even spoken with no real finality. It was more jest than anything. It was just the ideal solution to end her sister's prolong suffering in the poisonous relationship she shared with Ranma, that Kasumi couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it. She had always been so passive to the happenings around her, it was how she was able to remain unaffected to its infection. To maintain her sanity, Kasumi turned a blind eye to her surroundings, using the old 'If You Don't Believe In It It Isn't Real' mentality, and although it worked effectively in the sense that she had in fact kept her sanity, it had left her blind to the simple approach to resolve many of the problems plaguing her family's lives.

"Are you certain you do not mind paying for our all shopping Urameshi-kun?" Kasumi asked melodically.

Yusuke winked her way, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wallet. Thankfully, he had made a trip to his storage to retrieve his other wallet after leaving Ranma and Akane at school, "No problem. I got this. Gotta earn my keep somehow."

She giggled slightly behind her fingers, "I suppose."

Kasumi was already convinced that the young man beside her was wonderful, and his gentle awakening for her only solidified her opinion of him. It was a standard question he presented her with, why should her little sister and Ranma get married when there's a better alternative? Yet it was like the coffee that slurred Kasumi from the dormant state of acceptance she had fallen into, allowing the repetitive events her family went through to pass her by. He was taking action, simple as they were, but leaving an impactful butterfly effect all the same.

With Yusuke around to disrupt the status quo, Kasumi truly began to believe things around Nerima could change and everyone could move forward as people.

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

* * *

The room was almost entirely concealed in darkness, much to the chagrin of the current attendants, most of which were shrouded in silhouettes masking their appearances. The only lighting came directly from the long dining-like table they were gathered around, a faintly glowing blue hologram depicting the image of their cursed target in his curse form, lecherously flaunting his female body in short-shorts and a sleeveless tank boy.

"I'm glad you could all make it at such short notice gentlemen and ladies," The apparent leader of the group stated, stood at the head of the desk that would identify him as such. He was a relatively short elder, but not to the ridiculous level of the seemingly immortal Happosai. He had a thick, white moustache, the brims hanging slightly over his pale cheeks. Proudly on his scrawny, short posture was the distinguished uniform of their enigmatic organization, bearing a striking resemblance to that of a military uniform. A jacket with two front pockets on his sternums, thick trousers, black boots and a cap bearing the same star insignia on the right breast plate on the jacket stitched into the middle.

Besides the boots, the uniform marking someone as a proud member in one of the respectful ranks in the Jusenkyo Preservation Society abbreviated to JPS was camouflaged green.

"This better be good!" One of the silhouette shouted, in a voice that was markedly rough, aggressive and above all else, feminine.

"I concur, Chiyuki," Another silhouetted echoed, his subdued tone acting as a stark contrast to the irritable tone of the female who spoke moments before, "I don't quite enjoy being whisked out here when my documentary is on, though I have left it on record my point still stands." Something about nature and watching animals in their natural habit really resonated with his spirit. In particular, he found he related with the bear the most. Both were quiet, isolated creatures, but once angered both would transform into ferocious beasts.

"Like, I don't mind our little get togethers, guys," Another silhouette chimed in, voice a nigh-perfect impersonation of Shaggy from Scooby Doo, "Whatever gets me out of the house."

"Unlike you, Shades, the rest of us actually have lives outside of stuffing our damned faces in!" Chiyuki roared, and with it seemingly went the chairman's only hope of the meeting remaining civil.

"There they go again," He moaned, theatrically wiping a fabricated tear from his eye with a handkerchief he pulled from his person. There wasn't a possession too invaluable to him that he wouldn't part with to see all his subordinates getting along, working together like a well-oiled machine of coordination instead of the seemingly hastily assembled team of reprobates they came off as.

It was asking a lot and he knew it. Their personalities were too radically different for them to so easily put aside their differences for the betterment of the team. Add to the fact he rarely summoned them because they were just so difficult to convince to pause their lives and attend a spontaneous meeting. He often had to raise their salary just to motivate them enough to present themselves before him.

Truthfully, summoning them was pretty much more detrimental to the society as a whole than it was beneficial and why he did so on rare occasions. This was the first time in three years that they had come face to face like this, which spoke volumes for the stability of the organization for it to not even need eight of their best operatives to manage.

"Like far-out dudette, you really hurt my feelings," Shades mocked, big, bright, goofy smile shining through his shadowy figure.

"You're gonna be hurting if ya shut it, dork!" She threatened, shooting up to her feet.

"You will do no such thing to Gurubi," A robust silhouette stated firmly.

Ah, there was a small silver-lining. Even if they couldn't find common ground as a group, didn't mean they couldn't as a pair. They weren't so far apart in worlds that they couldn't relate to each other individually, one to one. Quite the contrary actually. It still wounded the chairman that they couldn't and/or wouldn't operate as a group, but it gave him hope to see they could as pairs.

"Thanks, buddy," Shady said in appreciation of his close friend's defence of him.

"No problem, Gurubi. Wanna eat after this?"

"Like far out! How did you know?"

"Oh, you and your eating buddy can suck your di-!"

"Enough!" The hulking figure at the foot of the desk, one of the only three not silhouetted, shouted belligerently, flooding the room in his waves of killing intent and silencing everyone, "We're here to brand out retribution to anyone breaking our code of conduct. Go bicker like children in own time!"

The vice-chairman smiled in complete satisfaction of the JPS' most loyal soldier laying down the law, forcing compliance from his juniors just from the mere pressure of his aura. Kinnii – Reportedly being the closest to the Apocalypse's power rumoured to have been so potent he produced an earthquake simply by flexing his muscles five years ago, he was by far the strongest soldier in their ranks, and luckily, the most loyal. He carried the organization single-handedly when the organization didn't have the funds to incentivize the others to join him, needing nothing but his own determination to rid the world of scum like the lawbreakers Ranma Saotome and his ragtag group of Miscreants.

If it weren't for his curse, the singular weak point Ranma exploited, they wouldn't be in this situation. Ranma and co would be dead, but alas the curse doomed them for failure that left severe repercussions on Kinnii. In his curse-induced pacifist mind, he discarded his fame sword, a legendary weapon that bumped his power to a whole other level of godly brilliance. It took weeks to retrieve it, but now that they had they were ready to begin their countermeasures.

"Thank you, Kinnii," The vice-chairman, a short and stocky man, said appreciatively. Kinni snorted heavily and sat back down, "As you should know from the summary pertaining to the reason of your summoning, we of the Jusenkyo Preservation Society did a great disservice to the earth in allowing multiple miscreants to escape unpunished two months ago."

"Yes, my intrigue was peeked when I heard of Kinnii-hun's defeat to the scoundrel, and," A deeply alluring voice paused to glance up at the aforementioned indecent redhead criminal,"…Undignified Saotome."

"Hey, I didn't lose to that kid fairly," Kinnii grumbled defensively, "He activated my… _curse_ and ran when he could!"

"Well, regardless, it is relatively impressive that he was able to decipher your weakness to exploit," She continued, each word of hers dipping with heavy seductiveness, "He must be quite the strategist and one whose arrest should be handled diligently."

Kinnii growled in frustration. It was an insult to his pride as a fierce warrior that they had to call in his junior, inferior colleagues for assistance _and_ take precautions to ensure a repeat of last time's catastrophic defeat could not happen under any conceivable circumstance to execute the no-good lawbreakers. He could feel his eyes glowing with murder just reliving his downfall to that 'tactician's filthy hands.

"It was actually more of a fluke that he discovered Kinnii's weakness, Sachiko," The vice-chairman clarified, eliciting a gasp from the flirtatious woman.

"He wasn't even actively trying to pinpoint Kinnii's main flaw," She analysed, proceeding to rub more salt in the hulking warrior's already bleeding wound, "He's going to be even more dangerous to engage than I perceived initially."

"Exactly," The vice-chairman said gravely, "That's why I'll be first sending one of the good Doctor's Recruits to engage the miscreant if only to slow him down for one of you to finish the job indefinitely."

This announcement caught the attention of everyone. Even the laziest one who was the picturesque definition of couch potato, was only now prying his head from its formerly slacked positioning on the table from the proclamation that one of the dubbed Mad Scientist's Recruits were being sent out to the field.

Recruits were absolutely lethal and, because of what they were in nature, the ideal subordinates. They didn't require incentives like pay-checks to pause their lives to carry out orders. They literally had no lives. All they needed was to be switched on, given orders, and they would set out to accomplish them even if it killed them.

…Even if it killed them.

Hence lied the main flaw stopping the Recruits from replacing the current Star Elites of the JPS' main fighting force. Recruits weren't perfect. They were created by man and man wasn't perfect. It showed in their design. Recruits were reckless, charging at their targets with reckless abandon. While this was a valid tactic for the fastest of Recruits, most other Recruits made themselves too predictable, and for someone like the lawbreaker Ranma, being predictable would only serve to play into his hands. They had also a weakness that was quite easily exploited.

Recruits would not attack those significantly weaker than them.

"Which class is being sent out?" Gurubi's close companion asked.

Recruits fell into three separate classes representing their armour and speed levels.

Bulky, heavily armoured Recruit. Or in Chiyuki's 'colourful' words, fatass Recruit. This one, due to his lack of speed, fought less recklessly and more carefully, choosing to play to his strengths with simple tactics. Stand still, guard, and draw his enemy in for devastating combos of heavy hits capable of bringing down _buildings_ like logo blocks.

Relatively bulky, medium-armoured Recruit. This type of Recruit was arguably the most balanced. He took the best traits of the slowest and fastest Recruits and moulded them into one terrifying package, but wasn't as strong nor as fast as the other two classes. They were considered the less viable Recruits was this reason: they couldn't endure as many attacks as the Fat Recruits nor could they attack as relentlessly as the slim Recruits could.

Skinny, lightly armoured Recruit. This type of Recruit was by far the most reckless, and by extension, lethal. What they lacked in endurance they more than made up for in speed. They assaulted their targets _unrelentingly_ , never stopping until their target was surely eliminated, their body a pile of ash at their feet.

"Fast Recruit."

Everyone gasped.

They severely felt like their trip to their base of operations was entirely worthless now.

"Well, shit. Us gathering here was for nothing," The couch potato remarked.

"Why didn't you just send that speed freak of nature and instead of calling us here!?" Chiyuki questioned angrily. They better be receiving an increase in their salaries or a one-off payment for this. It was irritating on its own dropping everything to travel to another country, let alone finding out that her muscle wasn't even needed anyway.

"Need I remind you he _did_ overcome Kinnii, albeit dirtily?" He awkwardly added, trying to appease Kinnii's ego _,_ "It would be unwise to underestimate him again." He thumbed down a dial in front of him on the desk, prompting it to light up in a blue glow, "Miss Jing, inform the good Doctor to dispatch one of his lightly armoured Recruits to the City of Tokyo, located in Japan."

" _I'll get right on it sir_."

"Thank you."

XxX

He was known by many names, nicknames his kind had crafted for themselves, for their particular class. Each one represented an attribute they had made their own enough to be recognized as when someone merely uttered the word in a sentence.

 **The Unpredictability** – His speed, unrivalled and uncontested to even those in the Star Elites, the ones closest to _his_ power, was so high it was rumoured he was teleporting by even those who could move at such speeds quicker than the normal human eye could track. One couldn't predict his movements, with his feet blurring to their eyesight, and, even though he wasn't much of a tactician – that fell to the other classes of Recruits – he could change his approach in the blink of an eye if his tried-and-true bum rush style wasn't working.

 **The Unrelenting Bull** – Like the animal, he was lethal, and once given a target to focus his programmed rage upon, he would not cease until his prey or himself _ceased_ to exist, until one of their bodies was nothing but a puddle of their inner fluids of blood, or in his case, _oil._ One simply wasn't getting a sporting contest of strength when he brought a fight to them. They were being pulled into a death match and it would not cease until one of them was just that; dead.

 **Chaos Incarnate** – Wherever he ran, winds of mayhem followed, manufactured from the basic pace of which he travelled to his targets at. Cars, vehicles of all kinds, would be sent hurtling, the trees would be uprooted, buildings of any height and mass would plummet from the force of the fabricated tornado, typhoons would rise from nearby lakes, and even the grass, pavements and concrete roads would be gouged, all from a Recruit purely running. Or it would, if the Recruit wasn't programmed to care for the environment and its inhabitants. Just as well too, because if he didn't a second Apocalypse would surely be among them.

Above all else, though, he was simply named Recruit: A default operative no matter how disgustingly powerful, was expendable. If he died or went haywire somehow, he could be self-destructed and replaced by the thousands of other Recruits just waiting to take his place. He was a fail-safe. Nothing more, nothing less.

"We are green!"

Ranma Saotome was dead.

* * *

 **The One Who Disrupts the Flow**

* * *

Furinkan High School

Yusuke Urameshi was the most interesting guy he had ever met. Wait. Didn't he already reach that conclusion? The uncommon powerhouse youth kept finding more ways to surprise him and tug at his heart strings, though he wouldn't outwardly admit the latter.

"Hey, Ranma." Two nondescript boys in the official dark-blue military school uniform pushed through the fire exit entrance beside him leading to the rooftop, finding him resting against the doorway with one knee pressed against his chest and the other spread out before him.

Daisuke and Hiroshi.

He was at a loss in what to label their pseudo-relationship as. They weren't his friends for the reason that there was a polite gap of two varying worlds separating them; the average-joes and the superhumans, but they were too nice guys for Ranma to just brush them aside.

"Hey, boys," He lifted his head up in greeting, "S'up?"

"Nothing."

"We just passed by to see if it's true."

"Is what true?" Ranma asked, though already had the suspicion he knew what they were getting at. There was nothing else they could hint it. Happosai had made no secret out of his feat of sealing Ranma's strength away to the entire school so the raven-haired youth's enemies would torture him in his stride.

"Akane said you got your strength back."

"Yeah, dude. Is it true? Did you really get your strength back from that old man?"

"What d'you think?" He returned curtly, fisting a lovely basketball-sized hole in the wall, making the two common students without an ounce of power in them jump out of their skins from the spontaneous feat not in their world. They stared, bug-eyed at the cratered wall and the fist that was wedged into it being pried out, then to Ranma's dismissive visage.

"…Heh, guess that answers that." Daisuke said nervously. He could've just said so, though.

Ranma smirked slightly. He never knew he needed that prescription of validation of his strength as much as he did as he got it, that he could still awe people with the stunts he could pull off, from the metaphorical doctor. Since Yusuke literally sauntered into his life and casually booted Happosai out of the dojo, his usual indomitable confidence took a small hit and with each overwhelming display of power his fellow raven-haired teen demonstrated, he felt more mitigated, his presence no longer needed, like the show was being taken away from him.

That was one thing he did not want to come to pass at any cost and would go to great lengths to assure it never did. Quitting was for losers and Ranma Saotome did not accept the 'L'. Where there was a will, there was a way. That was his symbolic mentality, mainly because he would never risk being caught red-handed quoting something so cheesy.

"So, what're you doing up here, man?" Hiroshi asked, pulling Ranma from his thoughts of overpowering Yusuke.

"Meh, just thinking about things."

"Wanna come down and join us in a game of football?"

"Na. Think I'll pass this time. Thanks for the offer, 'tho."

"Well, suit yourself," Daisuke accepted with a shrug. If he didn't want to play with them then he didn't want to play with them. They couldn't force him and they knew they wasn't close enough to him to force his hand with grovelling-like pleas of 'C'mon!'

"See ya in class, dude," Hiroshi bid him farewell with a two-fingered salute, holding the door open for him and his partner in average to amble through.

"Catch ya on the flip side guys," Ranma returned with collected nonchalance, a wave and smile sent their way. When the door slid shut on its own accord, signalling their immediate departure, the braided-haired martial artist released a sigh of content to it all, "Glad they're gone." They were nice, they really were, and he did like them as far as acquaintances went and enjoyed their company to a small degree, but they were just so worlds apart that he could never truly open up around them. To step out of his hardened shell of indifference, kick back and relax with those guys was an impossibility.

Besides that, he wanted to return to his inner thoughts. Their presence had only accentuated his unspoken appreciation to Yusuke's markedly offhanded clarification of their friendship.

" _Making sure my friend doesn't get his face flattened._ " It was so simple, just a retort to a rude accusation of his audacious behaviour in making sure he didn't get trounced on, yet it left long lasting effects on Ranma, making his heart clench.

"Darn it!" He shovelled his fist straight into the ground beneath him, features crinkling up in exasperation before softening in mild anguish, "Stupid crummy jerk, where does he get off making me feel this way?" Guys weren't supposed to feel a flood of overwhelming joy overtake their hearts just at a mere gesture of camaraderie. They were meant to _easily_ take it in stride as just that; a macho bromance between manly men, but Ranma grew up isolated from social circles.

Even when his father took him to such social gatherings as the park or even a play scheme centre in his earlier adolesance so he could mingle with kids his own age he felt detached from their lack of trained strength and martial arts background.

The closest thing he had to a relatable 'friend' in martial arts prowess was Ryoga back when they were both in Middle School, but even that was stretching it. He liked Ryoga, and fighting with him over bread was a hell of a lot of fun with him, but Ryoga never dropped his natural defences around him, never allowed him to get close on an intimate, friendly level, and never once referred Ranma as a friend, like Yusuke had so casually, almost like it was the upmost natural thing to say.

The whole realization was expressly depressing to reach and depression was a ball game Ranma usually didn't touch with a ten-foot pole. That was usually Ryoga's forte. He needed a distraction, but his sidekick-like school acquaintances distinctly weren't going to provide.

But if they wasn't then the raging thunderstorms above prying open the heavens for a downpour to drop with an almost prejudice wrath upon him definitely was, you know, because almost any form of liquid under lukewarm would trigger his transformation. He… she at this point… didn't even roll her eyes feeling the sudden loss of muscle mass as her complexion lightened and hair brightened from raven to exotic red hair.

"That figures," She deadpanned in irritation.

The rainfall didn't hold up for very long, only a few minutes tops, leaving gloomy darkened skies reflecting the sour mood of one drenched redhead, droplets of water dripping off of her beautiful strawberry-coloured hair.

"This stinks!" She grumped and just to worsen her already annoyed mood the current itch of her existence still wouldn't leave the realm of her mind, reminding her while he thought this form of hers was very appealing to a guy like him, he wouldn't force her into this form against her will, coupled with his end quote in his mini crash with Shampoo made him in an appealing guy to Ranma. Not in the sexual sense, but more along the lines of, 'he's a great guy' sense, "Stupid numbskull," She pulled her knees against her chest, mumbling against her legs bitterly, "Why couldn't ya have just been like the rest of the jerks around here, huh?"

At least that way she could write him off as 'the norm' instead of miserably contemplating the enigmatic expectation he was in reality.

A gap in the door was created, catching Ranma's attention before it widened fully, birthing entrance to Akane bringing the convenient cheer, with the said manifested pick-me-up being in the form of a distinctive golden kettle billowing out hot stream from the hose.

"Yo, Akane!~" Ranma smiled, happy to see the girl for once.

"Hey, Ranma," She greeted back, smirking down at her prone form in an all-knowing smug manner, "Thought you might need this."

Ranma placed her hands over her heart in a sense of good-natured mock touch, "Aw, how'd ya know?" A playful grin took shape across her lips, "You musta read my mind, gal."

"What can I say? I'm psychic," Akane retorted in kind, eliciting a snicker from the current red-haired girl. She did like Akane when they could banter on friendly terms without the playful remarks getting too personal. They were both sassy young ladies that went together like peanut butter and J, which just made the irony of their hostility as guy and girl that much more ironic. As friendly platonic girlfriends, they could jest no problem, but as alleged fiancées they were at each other's throats.

One would assume two playful spirits like the two young ladies would be a match made in heaven but Ranma's insensitivity combined with Akane's sensitivity sentenced the pair from the clouds of harmony and into the flames of hell.

"So what's up?" Akane asked to initiate conversation, propping herself down across from the redhead, kettle sitting in between them symbolizing the polite distance between them.

Ranma peered slightly over to her, "What d'you mean?"

"Oh really?" Akane narrowed her eyes suspiciously, though the redhead only shrugged her shoulders in feigned innocence. The blue-haired girl let out hot-air in a light huff and gazed to the sky, feigning intrigue, "Oh, you know, I heard two little birdies say you were lost in thought up here." She glanced back to Ranma with one eye at her click of the teeth.

Daisuke and Hiroshi. Of course they would tell her.

"Just thinking about stuff," Ranma continued to evade.

"About Urameshi-san?" Akane probed lightly, drawing a sudden flinch from the cursed warrior and a very un-Ranma-like reserved nod. The demeanour vastly reminded Akane of her first meeting with Ranma in her female form. For the whole day, she was very much in her shell, so to speak. It wasn't until the proverbial cat fell out of the bag in regard to the reveal of her curse that Ranma broke out of her previous timid exterior.

Good impressions were obviously important to her, and even if she failed to make one in her introduction to the Tendo family and most noticeably Akane herself, it was the thought that counted.

"Yeah, he's quite the guy," Akane murmured softly, drawing her head away from Ranma and pulling both of her knees up to her chest.

"Just can't figure the guy out," Ranma admitted with some reluctance, lifting her own knees up to her chest to Akane's curious glance, "I mean, he's a jerk. I get that much, but he's been really swell too, helping me recover my strength, getting 'Shamps off my back and stuff," Her grip on her knees tightened, "I… I guess you could say I'm a little grateful."

Akane snapped a startled gaze to the struggling redhead, "Ranma…" She uttered softly, but the aforementioned martial artist evasively jerked her head from her view, missing the softening of Akane's remorseful eyes, 'Why is it so hard for you to open up?' There was an emotional barrier, constructed by the girl's thoroughgoing unwillingness to get attuned with her emotions, leaving her terribly out of touch with them, "Urameshi-san is,-" Akane reluctantly continued, wisely choosing not to touch on Ranma's nigh breakthrough in emotional stages before the young woman could go on defence with snappish slanders that would only lead to them clashing heads.

They had promised their senior they would at least attempt to stay civil, so she couldn't risk it, "-A really nice guy," She continued, turning from the redhead, a forlorn air encompassing her, "It's really weird! He's a pervert-," Which should've made him enemy number one in Akane's eyes, "But he's also been super nice to us."

He even exchanged cell-phone numbers with Akane so the two could reach him in case of an emergency, though Ranma had absolutely no intention of ever speed dialling him to bait her out of hot water. She could swim herself out as far as she was concerned.

"I know, right! That's what I'm saying!" Ranma perked up in her indignation, making a wide armed gesture Akane's way accentuating her content to her agreement with her before folding her arms over her chest, "Guy's a total oddball! He's swell, but not a wimp, a jerk but cool too, ugh!" She was pulling at her hair, "The whole thing's bugging me out." The formula of citizens in Nerima was linear as it got. If they were nice, they were usually wimps with hidden diabolic twisted motivates, and if they were jerks they were jerks with no redeemable qualities.

Akane offered her a remorseful smile, "Urameshi-san's strong, huh?" She stated, shifting the conversation slightly in a hushed whisper, pulling herself closer to her knees, "Gosh! He only looked at Mousse but had him running away scared!"

Ranma scoffed, blowing off a raspberry, "Please! I coulda done that!" Akane looked her way blankly, prompting her to elaborate on Yusuke's 'trick' of intimidating the Amazonian male, "That was just killing intent. For Pete's sake, Akane! You do it too!"

Akane blinked, pointing dumbly to herself, "I… do that too?"

"Uh, yeah!" She confirmed none too politely, "You always do, when you let off hot-air," She scratched her cheek bashfully, "Though yours ain't as bad as his. You only channel your anger in your battle aura to tick me off when I've ticked ya off. Yusuke's aura felt like he wanted to kill Mousse for talkin' crap about him."

"Sounds like he was sticking up for you more than himself."

"Really? Didn't notice."

"Ranma."

"Akane."

Akane glared.

Ranma glared.

The stare off of wills lasted all of ten seconds before the former relented with a sigh.

Akane knew it was going to take a long time until the dam keeping the gender-bent's emotions at bay came down, but Rome wasn't built in a day after all.

* * *

"Hey! That speed freak should be nearly at Tokyo, right?!" Chiyuki questioned irritably, even if it had only been a couple of hours since one of the lightly armoured Recruits was dispatched. Recruits weren't human thus wasn't limited to such things like stamina, and because the good doctor was an environmentalist, Recruit was solar-powered. As long as the sun was up, which it was, he could keep going endlessly, fuelling himself on the rays of the sun simultaneously. This, combined with his level of speed that easily superseded an attack chopper, should have made a country journey of China to Japan nothing but a day's road trip, at minimum.

Key words being should have.

"Uh..." The Vice-chairman said awkwardly.

"He got distracted, didn't it?" The couch potato asked knowingly.

"For a matter of great urgency, yes."

xXx

The sound of a huge metal wall being slammed and pinned against a gaping hole echoed throughout a cosy house as a pair of black gloved hands pushed against it to cement it in place.

"Wall fortifications done!" The short, black-coloured woolly-ski-hat-masked, sunglasses-clad cybernetic Recruit shouted with finality. Recruit's caring nature for the earth's inhabitants extended past that in that whenever he came across a person in need he would almost always pause his current task at hand to help them.

"Well thank you, young man," The elderly woman whose house he had reinforced with a solid steel wall he materialized from his aura alone said pleasantly, "It's so reassuring to see some youths of today respecting their elders," She almost had a heart attack when that other youth, decidedly rowdy, charged through her home with a boulder strapped to his back, "Would you like to join me for some tea and cookies?"

He was going to stay, not because he wanted the tea or cookies, but because Recruits had another weakness.

They loved old ladies like their own grandmothers.

Ugh, the vice-chairman would have to remember to tell the good doctor to stop putting his own personality traits into his creations, or else he would be getting a pay reduction.

* * *

 **Alright, moving on to the first story arc - The Return of the JPS arc and this time, instead of Dr Slicer from Recess making an appearance as the psycho Cyborg Ryoga decimated in the original, the lovable Recruits from my favourite game, Rainbow Six Siege, are in his stride as the malicious, but strangely lovable killing machines as I hoped I implied with that last scene. I felt Recruits would represent the light hearted tone the series has being killing machines that still care for the environment and the people they were tasked to protect rather than a dark, brooding asshole like Mr S was. To those of you who have read the original I'm sure you know who the** **"Apocalypse" is that prompted the good doctor to start mass producing the Recruits. :p**

 **Don't worry about the OCs. I won't be focusing on them. They're just fodder for the main characters to batter around. Once they've been beaten they'll fuck off to never be seen again, I promise. Canon characters come first. No two ways about it.**

 **Oh, to those of you who are familiar with One's work "One Punch Man" I recommend "Mob Psycho 100," he's second series. It's amazing, similar, yet not to One Punch Man. It has that similar humour since they're made by the same guy, but couldn't be more further apart from each other. Mob's more of a serious character-driven story with humour than One Punch Man, which is an action-orient parody. And Mob, while possessing incredible psychic powers similar to Saitama's immense strength, goes struggle. He does get his ass handed to him and overcome his ordeals.**

 **Check it out. It's worth your time.**

 **Other than that let me know what you thought of the chapter. Greatly motivates me to write frequently.**


	4. What Goes Around Comes Around

**Disclaimer: I don't own YuYu Hakusho's brilliance or Ranma 1/2's balls to the wall humour.**

 **Aw, not many reviews from last chapter. I'm counting on you guys. Don't let me down.**

* * *

 **Coasting Through Life**

* * *

"That damn brat!" The evicted dwarf elder troll who once prowled eternally in the realm of the Tendo family's lives whined indignantly, stood outside his previous sanctuary of unpaid living and good home-cooked food, contemplating for the very first time whether or not he should risk setting foot past the huge stone doors let alone inside the dojo itself. That boy's power had been something else; something incomprehensible and terrifyingly familiar of the demons of his past.

When he came to he found himself thrown literally to the curb, appropriately stacked against the garbage bins. Naturally, his first instinct was to march boldly back into _his_ residence of living and give his good-for-nothing cowardly students a piece of his mind for treating their poor old master like he was a pile of waste to discard without prejudice, but it was overpowered by his sense of danger he felt being emitted by his humiliator.

He knew it was him. It had to be. There was no one else capable of just silencing him with effort let alone doing so without like he had done. His cowardly students must have extended an invitation for him to live with them to ward him off, probably giving him his room as an added insult to injury.

Gah. Happosai would make certain to remember to punish his worthless students for their second betrayal of him as soon as he could reach them. He had just the… ahem, _desirables_ he wanted them to collect and they would serve as distractions so he could watch beautiful young ladies in the hot tub without consequences.

"Those good-for-nothing students of mine will be punished," He snickered malevolently, though all sense of malicious bravado left him with the lingering approach of reaching them with the demonic tiger guarding them from him and his wrath.

He was frightening. They weren't many people beside the crazy who could make Happosai feel fear, and not just the temporary fear evoked in him from the wrath of righteous beautiful women but the eternal fear of his life being in serious legitimate danger.

This was what greeted the immortal elder's awakening; waves of murderous intent. He had a rule which was "Don't mess with the crazy," but this wasn't insanity. This was just murder in its purest form. All his senses were screaming out danger signals, telling him not to even so much as set foot on Tendo soil for his life would end in a matter of seconds if he did so.

Only two people to date had ever aroused such fright from the Grandmaster of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, and both of them were once _godlike_ kings of their respective lands, but if the youth's frighteningly similar aura was any indication he may just have a relation to one of those kings.

'Say, could he be Rai-.'

"What the hell are you doing here, old man?" Happosai blanched, nearly leaving the realm of his skin at the voice of his current terror of his prankster existence reverberating behind him in a deadpan.

The little elder gave himself the most unusual pep talk he never thought he would ever have to give himself since the demise of the kings and calmed, swiftly pirouetting in a 360 to come face to face with his tormentor heeled to his level, face a mask of controlled irritation. The oldest of Soun's children was stood a few feet behind him presumably for her own protection, four bags packed full of groceries lied by her feet indicating that the two had gone shopping.

Well at least that confirmed Happosai's suspicions in regard to the lingering traces of devilish pressure left behind from potent murderous intent. The youth had stepped outside to accompany Kasumi to the store and help her with the shopping.

 **Baw**. What a goody-goody! That sense of good principles completely _disgusted_ the elder. In his mind, someone as all-mightily strong as the youth shouldn't have to do "chores" like an everyday commoner to earn his keep. He should just intrude and live scot-free. He had the godlike power, so he could and should exploit it for his own gain to live the easy life in Happosai's opinion.

"You should learn to be more respectful to your elders!" Happosai imposed, thrusting an index finger to the dismissive gaze of the markedly rude youth before him.

"You don't say," The apparently disrespectful youth said dryly, resting his cheek against his palm in a manner of boredom, "Any other last requests before I send ya packing via the ass-kicking express?"

Happosai paled. With just a single sentence of smack talking he shattered the elder's tough-guy act. He had been booted off to ridiculous multitudes before by Akane and Ranma, but those hits had never truly hurt after the initial impact, never left any long-lasting effects like the simple rap of the knuckles he gave him to knock him out so easily. When he first regained consciousness, he almost wished he hadn't. The back of his head strung as if someone had taken a wet towel and pistol whipped him with it a dozen times.

It was hell.

Okay, so Plan A of contest his tough guy attitude with his own failed epically, now it was time to resort to Plan B.

"Why do ya gotta be so mean to me?" Grovel like a baby and appease to his conscious.

"Because you're an asshole," Yusuke summarized, "Pro tip for ya old man, the more your stunts go downhill, the greater backlash you'll get." He beckoned him away with his fingers, "Why don't you go away, reflect on that and come back a better person? Maybe then Soun might be willing to overlook your previous BS and bury the hatches."

Happosai sniffed in the sleeve of his purple Gi and Yusuke _almost_ felt sorry for the old guy, right up until he lifted his head from his sleeve and flashed him the creepiest puppy-dog eyed look he had ever witnessed, eyes wide and glistening to boot. It was cute when a kid did it but when an elder used it, it was just plain creepy.

"You really think so?" He asked in a sniffled whisper, promptly causing Yusuke to palm his face.

He was even trying to mimic the cutesy-wootsy voice of a kid not wanting to be in trouble with his parents. Sheesh. How petty could this old dude get? There seemed to be no levels too low that he wouldn't stoop to, to get his way, "Uh-huh." Yusuke uttered, trying to humour him.

"Do you think I can get Ranma-chan to wear these if I do?" He pulled out a frilly pink bra from the confines of his Gi.

And that did it.

Yusuke fisted Happosai's head into the ground with calmed irritation, "You see? Now this is what I'm talking about," He frowned at the bra by Happosai's prone form pointedly, "This is the stuff you keep pulling is why Soun doesn't want you around his kids. Grow up some, act a little more your age, and I'm sure that'll change," He pried his knuckles from Happosai's squashed head, shaking his hand free nonchalantly, "And for the love of-! Scrap the cute-wootsy act! You're way too old for that!"

Happosai pushed his hands against the solid earth, and pressing against it a couple of times as though he was performing push-ups, yanked his ostrich-positioned head from the ground with an all-mighty heave, stumbling for a bit before regaining his balance. He took a moment to allow his disorientation to fade, placing both hands on his head to steady it as the two images of the youth in front of him slowly merged into one.

"Oh, whaddya know, you darned juvenile delinquent!" Happosai shot back, removing his hands from his skull only to snap one right back. That punch had really knocked him for all he was worth, leaving him dizzy, "Being youthful isn't restricted to age! It's in your soul!" He babbled on nonsensically, "Don't cha have a soul!"

"There's a fine line between being 'youthful' and just straight-up 'childish' old man."

Happosai visibly flinched. That retort in particular had really seeped into his skin, rubbing his most sensitive spots for what it was in nature; a smart-alecky line of a wise guy and a line that blasted Ranma would most likely tell him just to annoy him. He despised Ranma like no other, especially when he wouldn't go girl for him and let him fondle 'her' breasts, but at least the gender-bender was passive. That was something the elder could get behind. He didn't take action to banish him like the youth before him.

At most, Ranma would punt him to orbit for groping her, and although that was highly infuriating for Happosai, it still beat being kicked out of the Tendo Dojo.

For once, Ranma was the lesser of two evils.

"I'll teach you to respect your elders, you darned hooligan!" Happosai declared having officially thrown in the towel in trying to appease to the delinquent's good sense. From his faintly glowing blue aura, emerged a bomb, "Happo grand fir-."

"Stop that." Yusuke plainly ordered in dismissal, effortlessly confiscating the explosive device from the elder and defusing it with his fingers before tossing it aside.

"Wha-?" It took several moments before it drowned on him that he had been relieved of his toy before he even had a chance to use it, "Hey! No fair! That's cheating, chea-!" His accusations died in his throat from the hard palm that landed painfully on his head, tightening spitefully. He was pulled from his feet to meet an annoyed stare dead on.

"Time for you to take a hike."

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" He beseeched, feeling pitiful for having to resort to genuine grovelling as he threw out his arms toward the limb winding up in preparation to send him flying. The youth, in a strange act of leniency, granted Happosai's request for a favour, raising him up to meet his face again, "I need to get my things," He squirmed frightfully under the terrifying soul-crushing gaze of the youth.

"Really? You're sure that's all you need?" Happosai nodded to the question, "Alright, let's go get your stuff," He turned, approaching Kasumi and the groceries. He scooped down and grabbed each bag in one hand, "But after that, you're gone. I don't wanna see your face around here again, you got that shrimp?"

"Humph!" The diminutive elder huffed in a grump, but otherwise nodded his head in acceptance.

"Let's go, Kasumi," He instructed and the maiden nodded dutifully, following after him. Happosai attempted to squirm around to look at her, but Yusuke only mercilessly slammed him into the stone wall on the way through the entrance. It was clear he didn't even want him so much as looking at Soun's daughters.

Once they were inside Yusuke coldly flicked him against the stairs, immediate followed by instructors in his trademark no-nonsense demeanour, "Round up your gear and your things. Don't make me catch you stooping around up there or I might just kill you. Soun doesn't even want you in here, but I'm giving you leeway so you can at least grab your stuff."

"Yes, sir." Happosai moaned miserably, trudging off up stairs.

"Urameshi-kun," Kasumi gently nudged, watching the elder depressively fade out of her view with a sympathetic glance before slipping off her shoes.

"Yeah?" He granted, kicking off his shoes and lining them accordingly, shifting two of the four bags in his left hand to his right hand now that it was no longer holding the diminutive founder of Soun's fighting style.

"Would it not occur to you that you were perhaps being a tad bit severe on Grandfather Happosai?" Kasumi presented, being as polite as possible as she followed Yusuke through the hallway past the stairs.

"No," Yusuke answered bluntly, "C'mon Kasumi! Wise up. Those were crocodile tears. Look how quick he triggered 'em when his tough-guy act backfired. Phony as hell!

With a disappointing shake of the head, Kasumi pitied his uncompromising stance to see reason, "I understand that Grandfather Happosai is probably the worst person I have ever acquainted with, though I have not had the opportunity to socialize with a huge gathering!" This time it was Yusuke's turn to pity Kasumi's reluctance to offend others. The girl was far too polite for her own good, "I just find adapting a more delicate approach would work just as effectively as being strict."

"Hold his hand basically," Yusuke summarized, earning a rapid nod from the maiden. He sighed as the two began to near the outside porch between the living room and the garden, the very place which witnessed Happosai's downfall, "Look, I'm all for burying the hatches, but the other guy's first gotta show signs of keeping to his end of the deal. Now if he just goes and 'bees the same nuisance that made the hatch to begin with, then that defeats the whole 'let bygones be bygones' thing we had going."

Kasumi nodded after a small moment of thought. As hard-headed as her fellow nineteen-year-old was, he did make compelling arguments. There wasn't any point showing someone mercy if they weren't going to self-reflect on their behaviour and better themselves for it.

"I see," She said, relenting on the matter.

Yusuke shifted both shopping bags in his right hand to place his left hand on the shorter girl's shoulder in a comforting fashion, "Look, if the old guy really isn't as bad as I'm making him out to be, he'll fix up his attitude and come back with a heartful apology in no time at all."

She appreciatively patted the hand on her shoulder before offering him a smile for his comforting suggestion, "Yes, I will hold on to that credence. Thank you Urameshi-kun."

"Don't sweat it."

"Hm?" Their discussion on punishments caught the attention of the two men sitting by the open door of the living room, a shogi board sat in between them, "Ah, Kasumi, Urameshi-sama. I trust your grocery trip went well."

Yusuke grunted, removing his hand from Kasumi's shoulder. Ever since he evicted the dwarf elder from his home, Soun and Genma had been practically kissing the very ground he walked upon. The former had even started officially referring to him as 'his liege' or 'Urameshi-sama'.

"Fine."

"Ah!~ That's good," Soun sighed in the blissful content of being master-free, "So what was it that you two were discussing about just now?"

"Sounds like an intriguing topic you were chatting about?" Genma grumbled absently, eyes honed on the chest board in front of him as if waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Yusuke's answer was not one they wanted to hear after finally being relieved of their tormentor, "The old man's here."

"The master's here!"

Genma flung himself out of the living room and into the back garden, comically rolling into the Koi pond with a reverberating splash. Not a second later did he emerge in panda form, face panic-stricken as he conjured a sign from seemingly thin air.

*Protect us, oh great one!*

Yusuke palmed his face with a heavy sigh and even Kasumi shared a little bit of his annoyance to the two's excessive display of fear of the elder present in their home, "Chillax already, old dudes. The old guy's only here to grab his stuff. After that, he's gone. You won't even see him."

"Oh?" The casual reassurance calmed the frightened men down a touch, Soun prying himself from his position huddled up on the ground, back in Saiza, "Are you certain?"

Yusuke didn't mince his words, "You have my word."

"Thank you, my liege."

*You truly are a god among gods.*

"Yeah, yeah," Yusuke muttered sarcastically. Almost on reflex Kasumi continued onward to the kitchen, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Yusuke before he banished it to address his seniors, "We need to talk about something else tho."

"Oh? What could that be?" Soun asked pleasantly.

Yusuke opened his mouth to reply, but a quick look to his hands had him frowning, "Just a sec." He flickered out of existence, much to the confusion of Genma and Soun before he reappeared, but without the shopping bags he once held, "Just had to put those in the kitchen first. No biggie."

Both made an 'O' with their mouths and Genma made a comment on Yusuke's feat with a raised sign, *That was fast!*

Yusuke smirked momentarily, soaking up the compliment before getting down to business, direct as always, "Hold off on the wedding plans for Ranma and Akane."

"What?"

*What?*

Needless to say, his suggestion of such a natural outcome was greeted by the most obnoxious overblown expressions of horrified shock from the engaged duo's parents, eyes wide in comical plead and bullets of sweat raining down their faces.

"But my liege!"

*Say it isn't so!*

"Gimme a break," Yusuke muttered underneath his breath, pressing his index finger against his temple to soothe the headache he could feel coming on. Right on cue Kasumi ambled back onto the scene with a kettle of hot boiling water, humming melodically all the while.

"Here you go, Uncle Saotome," Stood right over the hunched form of the panda, Kasumi lightly doused his form, reverting him back into his human self

"Ah!~" Genma breathed out leisurely, feeling the warm water sooth his body, "Much better," He stood, crossing his arms in a hardened stance before Yusuke and his outlandish proposal, "I don't think you know how much it means to Tendo and I to see our schools unified. We need Ranma and Akane to marry for the unity of our schools!" Soun nodded rapidly in agreement.

"Even if that means your kid's gotta tie the knot with someone he butts heads with?" Yusuke challenged, daring them to insist with his darkened glare of disgust.

It was frightening enough that the two disciples of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts gulped and scooted away from him, "My boy can't be choosy about women." Genma argued.

"I think he's entitled to when that lady's gonna be the one he spends the rest of his life with, don't you?" Yusuke argued in return, making Genma slump his shoulders. He did have him good there, "Besides, even if Ranma doesn't end up marrying one of Soun's kids doesn't mean it's the end for the coming together of your schools."

Hope shone through the two's eyes of misty depression and confusion, "What do you mean exactly, Urameshi-sama?"

"Easy. Ranma, Akane or even Kasumi can have kids and they can get paired together for unity."

…

…

…

The following silence could've unnerved even the most patient of gentlemen. It was so palpable and thick that the masters of the Anything Goes School almost believed they had become deaf, until the birds, chirping contently in the vast quietness of the void, rang audibly in the air. Even the faint dripping of the tap left slightly on could be heard.

"Oh." Soun uttered, words simply escaping him at every thought-attempt to gather them.

That was just the solution to solve the toxicity in their children's relationship. It was so simple; obvious, they couldn't believe neither of them had grasped the concept of just letting their children have children of their own and pairing them together for the unity of their schools. It wasn't the most complex or well thought out of reasons, but it was an answer the two desperately desired to resolve the hostility between Akane and Ranma.

It was always in their faces, but in their short-sighted determination to force wed Ranma and Akane they had been blind to it.

"Saotome."

"I know, Tendo," Manly poured down Genma's eyes, gaze locked respectfully with Yusuke's, "You truly are a god, boy." He pressed his hands and knees to the floor, bowing in complete reverence to the omnipotent and omniscient warrior before him.

"How can we ever thank you, my liege!?" Soun wailed theatrically, mimicking Genma's actions.

"By calling off this half-baked engagement between your kids," Yusuke answered straight-forwardly, "They've got enough shit on their plates going through school as it is," He shook his head, "They don't need a wedding they ain't prepared for on top of that as well."

"Of course," Soun smiled in blissful acceptance and pushed himself up to his knees, "It pleases me greatly to know you're here. I shudder to imagine what would have become of mine and Saotome's families had you not walked into our lives when you did with your wisdom and knowledge. If you were to take an interest in one of my lovely daughters, please don't hesitate. I love to have you as a son-in-law."

Kasumi blushed at her father's most brazen statement of freely giving one of them away, "Father."

"I second that!" Genma agreed vigorously, until he stopped to think about his agreement, "Never mind. I don't have a daughter."

"I wouldn't be so sure, old man," Yusuke suggested, grinning slyly, "Ranma's got a fine-ass girl form," He wriggled his eyebrows up, "I could bone that."

"Hey," Genma frowned.

Yusuke laughed, "Just kidding, but you gotta admit the chance is there."

"Humph." Genma pouted, turning away from the youth with his arms crossed, but otherwise didn't deny the claim. Although he didn't like to entertain the idea it was possible that his son may enjoy being a girl more. He had seen glimpses of Ranma opening up more emotionally in his female form than in his birth form. They weren't comforting sights to bear witness to given the investment he had moulding Ranma into the perfect man, but they were ones he couldn't deny Ranma to as his right as a person to experience. His child was still his child. He would always cherish him or her regardless of how he or she wanted to live his or her life.

Genma's only hope if Ranma were to seek out a female heterosexual life that she would end up with someone like Yusuke. When Genma gazed up at the powerhouse youth he saw what he wanted Ranma to be: A strong, clever, mildly respectful, sensible, kind and noble young man. It was one of the reasons why Genma had such reverence toward Yusuke, because he epitomized the general idea of what he wanted Ranma to be.

"I must say, Urameshi-sama, you'd probably get along well with my middle daughter, Nabiki," Soun laughed nervously. The thought of two impish teenagers mocking everything around them was almost hell on the level of Happosai's pranks.

"Nabiki?" Why did that name sound so familiar?

"Yes, my middle daughter," Soun clarified, a perplexed expression gracing his face, "Hmm. Although for the strangest reason she's been absent ever since your arrival. Do you have any idea why, Saotome?" Genma shook his head.

"Nabiki, Nabiki," Yusuke repeated to himself, catching the attention of Soun.

"Yes, my liege. Do you happen to know my lovely daughter?"

"Your last name's Tendo, right?"

"Why, yes. Yes it is. Why is that an important factor all of a sudden? Have you ever made an acquaintance to someone named Nabiki and feel my Nabiki could be the one you met?"

"Nothing, it's," Flashes of five years ago, when he caught sight of that helper taking bets on his fights ran through his mind, and everything followed like an endless stream, his capture and interrogation of her, how cruelly he had mocked her for folding so easily, his journey to Nerima followed by its black market and his ruthless beat down of every adult in there, and his euphoria was reignited. At first, he tittered, but his small snickers grew louder and more continuous until he was practically chortling, leaving the other three attendants sharing confused looks.

"Is something the matter, my liege?" Soun asked.

"Do you know little sister, Urameshi-kun?" Kasumi followed.

"Know her-!" Yusuke choked out in between his gagging fits of laughter, slowly but surely quietening down, flicking a tear from his eye in the process, "Hehe, yeah. You could say she and I go way back. We're… _gonna_ get along just fine, rest assured."

The hidden malice in his casual assurance of deception flown over all their heads, "How delightful!" Kasumi sang, clapping her hands together, "It is so relieving to see little sister forming attachments to others. Oh my, I'm a tad bit ashamed to admit I was a little worried for her sanity."

"I agree, Kasumi. This is wonderful news!" Soun cheered, picking himself up, "Master free, stress free and even my lovely middle daughter is making friends. Come Saotome. This calls for a drink!"

"I could go for sake."

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

* * *

The end of the school day couldn't possibly had come any sooner for as far as Ranma's impatience and overall lack in Furinkan High School's eccentric teachings was concerned. His mind was far too clouded to focus on the tasks at hand, not just on Yusuke but the perspectives he gave him with his small advice on relationships and being a blast to be around in general.

He wondered, if his innocent interactions with Yusuke devoid of the incentives that would have made such a sincere moment all but impossible with his 'romantic' rivals would be what one would call a friendship. After Mousse's introduction into the fold of insanity that encompassed his life, he grew clinical, his belief that people could come together just to enjoy the day fading like an optimistic dream, replaced with the practical outlook that people could only put aside their differences if there was a common goal in mind.

He realized he'd become small-minded on the concept of friendships, but living in a district where everyone looked out for their number one selves would have that adverse effect on anyone's mentality.

That was what made Yusuke so unique in that regard. He seemingly wasn't out for himself, didn't need to be motivated to hang with him, showing Ranma that maybe his enemies didn't also have to be his pseudo-buddies.

It was a concept he had done much self-reflecting on, which only intensified when Akane clarified Yusuke had been sticking up for him against Mousse.

A friend having his back huh?

Seemed like such an alien concept to him.

And then there was…

"Say, why are you walking home with us?" Ranma asked the infamous mercenary of Furinkan High School and his quote-unquote fiancée's sister from his walking perch atop the fence, said mercenary girl walking beside the aforementioned sister on the ground.

Nabiki had been uncharacteristically inactive, not even so much as making a snide remark. In her defence, her cash cow, the brainless parody of a samurai, had been conspicuously absent, but even if business was low she would normally just flaunt her presence like the domineering mistress she tried to pass herself off as. She didn't do that to compromise her lack of financial incoming and that alone was something to take note of.

She was so under the radar one might have thought she was missing in action all together.

Nabiki, of course, looked offended, trying to deflect any rare incidents with a pretence of good will, "Oh, come off it. Is it _so_ wrong for an older sister to want to walk home with her little sister and her fiancée, hmm?"

"Uh-huh." Ranma droned on, not hiding his disinterest as he eyed Nabiki's sweet façade suspiciously, "Duh. You've _never_ come home with us for all the time I've been here," He caught sight of Nabiki's bristle she attempted to disguise as innocence, "So fuss up! What's your deal?"

"He's right," Akane's curious observation wasn't making matters any easier for Nabiki to smooth talk her way out of, "We've never even walked home even before Ranma started living with us."

Ranma scoffed knowingly. That did not surprise him one bit. Nabiki always gave him the impression she disliked her family, or at the very least held them in disdain just for the little things she showed in her interactions with them. One could learn a lot from another just by taking in their actions and mannerisms with others perceptively, and there was almost no one else better than Ranma at observing behavioural patterns.

She was impolite to her father, often mocking his cowardice toward Happosai, showed little to no appreciation for her share of supper from Kasumi, even sarcastically apologizing for her ill-manners when the maiden tried to chide her, and just now, Akane revealed she had never walked with her to school. She distanced herself noticeably from her family, caring only for herself and the funds she accumulated, funds which could go to the security of the household but remained selfishly in her pocket.

Nabiki Tendo essentially embodied the number one mentality of Nerima.

She was a reprehensible person without a thought for those around her. Ranma wouldn't even put it past her to sell out her own family for the opportunity to cash in.

Knowing the family excuse clearly wasn't going to cut it, Nabiki seemingly folded in, placing her two fingers against her forehead in irritation, "Look, it's been a long day, Saotome."

"Uh-huh. So you say," Ranma sardonically played the part of following along Nabiki's new cover story dryly, arms wrapped around his head as he gazed up to the sky, "Still doesn't explain why you're coming home with us, 'tho."

The following baleful glare flared his way from the nigh-villainous high school girl could've made the average student give out and collapse under its intensity. In fact, it took all of Ranma's willpower not to succumb to the realization of the dangers he was tampering with.

 _This_ was Nabiki Tendo's patience he was toying with; infamous mercenary of Furinkan High School, and that title by itself should've raised a myriad of red flags in Ranma's line of sight. Furinkan High School was regarded as one of the worst schools in the country, being practically overrun with delinquents and misfits, leaving no semblance of order. The administration didn't even exist in such a chaotic school, evidenced well by the plethora of gear-fitted jocks who once attacked Akane daily for her hand, and yet; in this hoodlum-infested school of psychopaths, one young woman stood atop of it all.

That young woman was of course Nabiki Tendo. There wasn't a soul who hadn't heard of her name in the whispers of gossip and held immense fear toward her, or others' cases considered her warily. She controlled it all and Ranma knew it; knew of the great risks he was taking triggering her wrath-.

"Don't screw with _me_ , Saotome," The alleged queen of the school emphasized her importance with venom in her tone, wrathful glance commanding him to back down.

But he grew so tired of her pushing him around and her last statement just acted as the straw that broke the camel's back. That was a challenge and the one thing Nabiki should have realized about Ranma Saotome by now was that he did not back down to challenges. Even if it meant she would unleash hell upon him for his apparent insolence, he would endure it if it meant not backing down.

"Oh? Sounds like someone's fresh outta excuses," Ranma taunted, his perfect charade of innocent curiosity waning heavily on Nabiki's last nerve, "Wonder why that is, huh? Could it be y'know I ain't buying your crap?"

Akane's eyes were wide in wonder, 'Ranma…' She mouthed silently, nervously glancing over to her enraged sister who was almost foaming at the mouth in her anger.

Of course, this was still Nabiki Tendo. She'd sooner die than lose her cool as ice composure so easily. With a couple of deep inhales, she calmed herself, "Okay, you've had your fun," She stated condescendingly, "Don't you think now would be an appropriate time to quit while you're ahead? You wouldn't want your interest to rise the next time you need a load, would you?"

Ranma scoffed off her load shark farce, folding his arms over his chest, "Y'know, ever since Yusuke showed up, you've been acting pretty weird," He pointed out to his sudden theory, Nabiki's sudden flinch confirming those suspicions, "Wonder why that is, huh?"

"He's right!" Akane gasped, "You've been scarce since Urameshi-san's been here!"

"That's right," Ranma murmured, studying Nabiki's increasing ire with a keen eye, one hand cupping his chin, "You've been suspiciously MIA since Yusuke's been hanging at the crib," He narrowed his eyes, and Nabiki widened hers in demented fury, "Kinda makes a guy wonder, y'know? Have ya been purposefully ducking the guy or what? But why would the fearsome Nabiki Tendo of our school need to lay low, outta sight of a guy for, huh?"

"You just don't know when to shut up, do you?" Nabiki growled out, mask of calm composure officially shattered, and it was in that moment that she understood just how irritating a person like Ranma could be to Ryoga and Mousse. He always did have an unhealthy knack of getting under people's skins, but it was only now that he had material on her to work with that Nabiki actually understood that.

She seriously wanted nothing else to do other than to take a gun and shoot him in his head to forever silence that infuriating smart mouth of his. He knew he had finally gotten to her. It was written all over his smug face.

"Ranma, I don't think-." Akane tried, wanting to warn him that antagonizing her sister wouldn't end well for him, but fate had other plans, dealing its usual dosage of punishment out at Ranma; a downpour of freezing cold water as the hollow clink sounds of an empty bucket thudding off of the concrete ground rang out throughout the air.

"What'd ya do that for?!" The now redhead raged and Nabiki felt justice had been served.

The culprit, her usual diminutive molester, sprung to her chest crying like a baby, "He was so mean to me, Ranma-chan!~" Before he reach her however, a merciless grip clutched his head, slamming him to the fence line below.

"You just don't know how to reform, do you old man?" The controlled voice of annoyance of his tormentor sliced through the tense air like a hot knife through butter.

"Yusuke?" Ranma blinked, surprised to see the older male as Nabiki's heart tightened considerably in her chest from the acknowledgement of the very object of her fear standing but a few feet from her, breaking out into a cold sweat.

Yusuke didn't acknowledge her presence at first, choosing to stand from his squatted position to greet Ranma, the old man held nonchalantly in his grip like a forgotten rag doll meant to do away with, "Hey, Ranma," He said, only to stumble in his footing, "Whoa!~" He fell back to his previous squatted stance, looking up at the redhead in annoyed perplexity, "How the hell do you walk on this everyday?" He tried standing again, only to immediate stumble and recede back to squatting, "Can't even stand."

Ranma smirked, positively overjoyed and relieved to find she was better than Yusuke in some areas of the field and that he didn't just overpower her in everything. An leg-up advantage was just the thing she was looking for in her breakdown of Yusuke's fighting style to inevitably turn against him.

"I'm just awesome, pal," Ranma bragged, thumbing her brightly brimming posture of arrogance, eliciting a roll of the eyes from Akane.

"Yeah, you are," Yusuke sighed in mock-resignation, propping himself down fully on the fence, one leg folded over his lap and one hand pressing forcefully down on the back of Happosai's head so he would lose consciousness.

"So what brings ya around here?" Ranma brought up innocently, prompting him to lift up his head her way, though his stare dropped to admire the way her wet clothes clung to her body, accentuating her curves. Ranma obviously noticed his not-so innocent observation of her frame and squatted, playfully tapping him on the nose, "You didn't just decide to meet us halfway to see ol' little me earlier, did ya?"

"That too," Yusuke grinned wolfishly in his admission, eliciting a giggle from the redhead, "More to the point, 'tho," His sentence went unfinished verbally, his sharpening gaze snapping to the frightful jump of one Nabiki Tendo, and the other ladies' eyes were drawn to her as a result.

The display that awaited them from Nabiki herself of all people left them reeled both physically and mentally. Her eyes were dilated, pupils trembling within them, her knees were quivering, folding against each other, visible sweat bullets were raining down her countenance and even her teeth were clattering audibly, all from merely the sight of Yusuke and his demented scarlet eyed look of glee. It was quite the landmark sight to behold.

Nabiki Tendo, feared mercenary of their school, was for all intents and purposes the picturesque definition of slack-jawed shitless.

Ranma and Akane almost considered backing away from Yusuke out of caution if he could evoke such fear from the known wicked witch of the west.

"I knew it!" Ranma declared with awed recognition, jabbing an index finger to the terrified Nabiki, "That's why you were avoiding Yusuke! You're scared crapless of him!"

"Course she is," Yusuke remarked as though the discovery was a simple fact of life everyone should know just by mere observation, as true as the sky being blue. With no real finesse or coordination, Yusuke flung out his arm sideways, discarding the elder he held in a bin like he was hot garbage to do away with, though he landed in it with pinpoint accuracy. Nabiki fearfully viewed the feat from the corner of her eye, but wouldn't risk turning her head, not when she couldn't. She felt herself trapped by the demon's crimson-eyed stare of wild delight.

"I'm me, and I'm just awesome," Yusuke continued, sliding off of his sitting spot and landing on the ground, a few feet from Nabiki.

Ranma didn't miss a beat in Yusuke's quote of her, dryly smiling in reminiscence all the while, "Yeah you are."

Nabiki's heart thumped against her chest, her shoulders jolting in horrified acknowledgement of her tormentor's solidarity with her most predominant pawn. If push came to shove she could've always forced Ranma's hand to assist her, though she heavily doubted she would be able to fend him off in a one-on-one brawl. If Yusuke could so easily overpower the old fool who had been tormenting them since his introduction then he was naturally leaps and bounds more powerful than Ranma, but maybe the girl could've distracted him? Possibly redirecting some of his ire onto her by being her usual infuriating self?

That plan went well out of the window the moment Nabiki saw the two smart mouthed teens getting along too well to fight against each other for her sake.

In her hastily-scrambled mind of attempted answers, Nabiki made the only rational move she could, she _bolted,_ turning on her heel and surging forward, though she didn't get far. In fact, she didn't get anywhere. She wasn't a martial artist like her youngest sister. Even Akane could've outpaced her, who essentially had the equivalent speed of a snail in comparison to Happosai who was blitzed by Yusuke.

Really, she never was going to get away and she knew it. The moment she turned Yusuke was right there, staring her down like a predator would his prey, scarlet eyes brimming with a sinister glow. She felt several sizes too small in his overbearing shadow.

"Nabiki Tendo!" Yusuke acknowledged with mock-politeness, making Nabiki's stomach churn in petrified shock. He was using the very same tactics she often used to mind fuck her targets, "So glad I could make your acquaintance."

"Can't say the same…" Nabiki grumbled, posture backed up.

"I'm sure," Yusuke never lost his façade. He was in complete control and both of them knew it, "C'mon," When he snatched up her wrist Nabiki felt like she had been handcuffed by the police, but held at gunpoint by the mafia, "We need to talk."

Nabiki hurried frantic twists of her head, searching for any semblance of a lifeline to squirm her way out of the devil's wrath as he effortlessly pulled her along, her panic-stricken gaze falling to the last fragments of her hope out of sheer desperation.

"Ranma, help!"

She knew she was calling a long shot pleading with the redhead to rally with her, a person she had never been particularly fond of, versus someone who she was already warming to herself on the common grounds of similarity. There was but just a brief wage of the wars clashing in Ranma's head, but once she recalled the times of Nabiki's cruelty to her the conflict was over in a flash; a clear victor emerging.

The disregard of Nabiki had won.

Even the north pole would've seemed warm in comparison to Ranma's icy cold orbs of annoyance, arms crossed, "Knock yourself out, pal," She allowed, giving the green light to Yusuke to torture Nabiki until she was humbled into the ground.

"Will do," Yusuke promised nonchalantly, resuming in his casual pace of dragging his prey despite her best efforts to resist the contrary, flicking a two-fingered salute up in greeting, "Meetcha back at Soun's?"

"Sure," Ranma shrugged with a light smile, her innocent grin absolutely hardening into a devious smug smirk at Nabiki's petrified look of horror, staying on her face until the two were out of sight.

"There they go," Akane sighed with a foreign detachment. She couldn't decide whether she was overjoyed her sister was being taken away to meet her maker or horrified that her sister was so effortlessly dragged away from her to be inflicted emotional trauma. It was her sister, so she should care but try as she might Akane couldn't for the life of her muster up a single damn to share for her sister's predicament.

They may have been family, but they couldn't have been more further apart.

"Yup!" The 'P' in her single phrase rolled off of her tongue like an easy stream. Damn! It felt good to see the self-proclaimed big cheese getting what was coming to her. Ranma felt a little sadistic taking so much joy in seeing Nabiki getting her just desserts, but she had been so annoyed watching the mercenary do all the terrible things she wanted to do and literally damning the consequences for so long now.

Nabiki's comeuppance were a long time coming.

"I feel like we should be helping her."

"I don't. Maybe this'll knock Miss Big down a few pegs."

Akane really couldn't argue with that logic. Her sister had always been too terribly arrogant for someone who couldn't throw a single punch.

* * *

 **What Goes Around Comes Around**

* * *

"You were so adorable!~" Yusuke complimented patronizingly, all but flinging Nabiki against the littered wall after leading her in a narrow alley, wiping a loose fabricated tear from his eye, "Trying to use Ranma like that."

Nabiki huddled up against the dirtied, graffitied wall, kicking bags of garbage from her to get as comfortable as possible given the circumstances. Her worst nightmare had materialized before her, being pushed into a corner by a presence like she had done to so many others. Heh, this must have been what the believers called 'karma.'

She thought she never would have believed in such superstition, until now.

"I believe I'm entitled to that belief, don't you?" She retorted, willing her fear away.

Yusuke's scarlet pools flared up in interest, "You don't say. Tell me more."

Nabiki steered herself to meet his gaze, biting her bottom lip just out of the urge to turn away, "On this part of Tokyo, I call the shots, Urameshi."

"That so?" He asked rhetorically, getting a stubborn nod from his prey. He started laughing; a scornful laughter slowly erupting from the pit of his stomach making his shoulders rumble, "Hehehe. That figures."

"What do you mean exactly?" Nabiki asked with a slight narrowing of her gaze. He couldn't possibly have been complimenting her. That would be completely contradictory of his capture of her.

"You," He thrusted the tip of his index finger directly in Nabiki's face, forcing her to press herself against the wall, "You've been living in a small pond as a big fish."

Nabiki couldn't deny that. The reason why she was able to craft herself a pedestal above the free-for-all insanity of Nerima was not because she was intelligent, but because everyone around her were total idiots, thus easily susceptible to manipulation. They operated on certain morals Nabiki took advantage of to string them along to her whims like a puppet mistress.

"But that all changes with me in town." That was not a threat.

Yusuke lacked all the mental restrictions which made her such a dangerous contender to run the risk of challenging.

"So what now, huh?" Nabiki asked, bitterly resigning herself to her fate. She was beyond relieved when Yusuke's frightful red eyes of killing intent faded to nonchalant brown pools.

Yusuke straightened himself, pulling out a cigarette and pressing the tip of his index finger to it, inhaling, "You work for me now," He exhaled, releasing a cloud of smoke. Nabiki glumly acknowledged the finesse, "Could do with an assistant." He paused, giving Nabiki a one over, "Especially one as fine as you."

"With what?"

"What d'you know about underground fighting?"

"Oh, a little bit. Enough to know it's a sport where two brutes much like yourself duke it out for illegal funds."

"Precisely," Yusuke approved, deciding to let Nabiki's jibe at him drop, "We're gonna be taking trips there and you're gonna be betting on my fights, getting seventy percent of the cut and that includes other profits you pull in on the side too."

"That seems entirely unfair," Nabiki scowled.

"Don't worry. Look, because I'm a fair dude, I'll give ya chances to earn a raise," He hollered, twirling on his heel, "And hey, who knows, if you start to grow on me I might even just go halfsies with ya all the time, so chin up! All's not lost. Just mostly. You're no longer the one calling the shots, just the one abiding by 'em now. So let's hassle! Kasumi should be making supper soon."

As she trudged after her new chief, she could only relent to her miserable existence as a subordinate.

"If you say so... Boss."

She had been utterly dethroned as the big cheese in town.

She now knew the definition of 'defeat.'

* * *

Omake

(Moments Earlier)

"Hurry it up, old man! Time's a wastin'!" Yusuke hassled the elder, leaning up against the door of what was about to become his old room, arms crossed as he monitored the immature elder packing his belongings in a brown suitcase.

"Yeah, yeah." He muttered. Not that he wasn't still scared of him. Quite the contrary. Yusuke still petrified him _comprehensively_. He just lacked the energy to care anymore. More than anything he just wanted to leave and cry himself under a rock for the cruelty he had endured at the hands of Yusuke, "Say, may I ask ya something fella?"

Yusuke didn't see the harm in answering a measly enquiry. It wasn't going to change his perspective of the old man but depending on how he answered it might make the old man see him in a better light which could inspire him to better himself, "Sure. Fire away."

"Whatcha actin' like one of the commoners?"

"Eh?"

"Ya'know, like ya own Tendo something for lettin' ya stay," Happosai elaborated further and the clouds of confusion cleared up. Being selfish and cynical Happosai just couldn't wrap his head around the concept of someone as powerful as Yusuke not using his power for his own benefit, "With your power, ya could just freeload like I did. They wouldn't be able to do a thing to get rid of ya."

"What? And be a hated asshole like you?" Yusuke questioned dryly, eliciting a rapid nod from the elder until he donned on him that he had been insulted.

"Huh?" He blinked, catching up to speed with Yusuke's shake of the head, "Hey! I'm trying to be nice ya big meanie!"

"The thing about throwing your weight around, old timer, is," Yusuke continued seamlessly, "-Sure, nine times out of ten you'll get your way, but at the cost of a shit ton of negativity," He gave another shake of the head, this time in disappointment to himself than at the elder, "Wouldn't even be worth it. Folks would hate my guts and I would just be a lonely wannabe tough-guy."

"Humph!" Happosai turned his head in absolute disdain to the sentimentality of his reasons for not simply bullying his way into the Tendo Dojo, resuming his packing, "You're sappy!"

Yusuke smiled distantly, "And you're lonely."

"W-What!" The elder flinched, and his immaturity shone vividly with a immoral glow, "Heck no! Such things like companionship are for wussies, fella!"

Yusuke pitied his petulance with a light shake of his head and a grim smirk, "Keep up the tough-guy act all you want, old man. We both know under that front lies a pathetic virgin old manchild who could never get lied and make pals."

"Why you-." Happosai bristled, but one grimly glare from the bad-tempered delinquent was enough to snap himself out of his anger and back into caution.

"Wanna take this outside?"

No he didn't. For much as he desired nothing else greater than to have the power required to rip his spine out and strangle him to death with it, he ironically didn't possess the required spine necessary for confronting him on the battlefield. Those eyes were terrifying and held such wrath within them, especially when they shifted to that malevolent shade of blood red.

Happosai snapped his head, renewing his packing with additional haste, much to Yusuke's nodded content. It just wasn't fair. He felt prejudiced against. He saw nothing in him that made him that much more worse than Genma and Soun. Maybe not Ranma. He would admit the gender-bender could be ' _considered'_ a better person than him since he tried to be honourable and all that sappy jazz, but not his two worthless students. They were just as dishonourable as him and were only out for themselves as much as he was, yet he was taking the stick; shouldering the blame for all the negativity they rightfully should've wrought on themselves together! Gah.

He found a lone tear shimmering from his eye in his reflection on a peculiar mirror in his belongings and quickly wiped it away. Best not let the bad-tempered meanie see him crying or else he might just cold-heartedly assume them to be fake and… WAIT!

Happosai's eyes quickly pinned back to the mirror, cracked and only held together by tape, 'Eureka! That's it!' The solution to all his problems, 'If I go back in time I can bring _him_ back'n he'll get rid of that goody-two-shoes brat for sure!' Then things could resume to their normal order, with him back in the Tendo Dojo, making his worthless students grovel in utter obedience for their mistreatment of him, groping Ranma and Akane and living the devil-may-care existence he so richly deserved. It was the perfect plan. He couldn't believe he hadn't immediately thought of it after being overpowered by the boy, 'Ya'll get what's coming to cha soon enough, fella!' He chuckled malevolently, catching Yusuke's attention.

"What's so funny, old man?" Yusuke's gaze narrowed in suspicion.

Happosai yelped, burying his intentions for vengeance deeper into his bag, "Aah! Nothing!"

Yusuke wasn't willing to let it go so easily, "Then what's so funny, huh?" He strode forward with authority, looming over the smurf elder with his imposing presence, "C'mon! Share with the rest of the class!" He reached over him, forcing his hand into his belongings despite Happosai's attempts to resist the contrary, huddling his arm like a longline.

"No!"

"Just show me!"

"No!"

"The quicker you show me the quicker you can leave!" Yusuke reasoned hastily, pulling out his arm at the first material object he grabbed onto like a fishing rod being yanked by a fish, sending Happosai flying off of him. He cringed and almost dropped what he ripped out; a pair of lacy women's underwear, "What the fuck? You crossdress?"

"Hey! Give that back!" Happosai demanded, springing forward uncaring of his wellbeing to get his precious prize back, "It's mine!"

"Here, take it!" Yusuke scrunched up the lacy panties in a ball, slamming it into Happosai's face with enough kinetic force to repel him back. He grimaced in his view of Happosai hugging the lingerie to his face possessively, mumbling it being his pretty and that he would protect it with his body if he had to, "You're sick."

Happosai huffed at the insult. Like he would ever understand. He gathered the remains of his things and took off, running out of the door, downstairs and through the front door, marshalled off by Yusuke who unsympathetically assured his leave.

"Glad he's gone. Sheesh!" He caressed the back of his head, "Ew, crossdressing. Never get that image outta my head." Though the bright white light symbolizing his student's dormant teleportation ability could provide a healthy distraction, "Sweet. Look who made it back."

Nigh-passed out at his feet was his student, weighed down with a beaten down massive boulder on his back. He didn't look any better himself, though, with dirt all over his face, his hair a tingled mess, and borrowed white tank top of his master tore nearly off his muscular frame.

"Ah…" He huffed, struggling to catch his breath, "…Finally made it back, Sensei…"

"Sweet! Now we can get you started on the balancing part of your daily routine: standing still for the next four hours with water pots on your knees and shoulders. Cold too, just to give ya more incentive not to fuck up."

Ryoga groaned.

"Hey! Hey! No one said the journey to godhood was a straight road. Wanna get far? Then you gotta be willing to bust your ass for it."

Wasn't that the truth?

Though after today's exercises Ryoga wasn't sure if he would live to see the results of his training.

* * *

 **Alright, another build-up chapter. Necessary for setting up future story arcs and establishing character development. As I'm sure you've noticed Genma and Soun are gonna be a lot more accepting to Ranma's change this time around. I want this to be a kind fic. Everyone, 'cept Happosai, and Nabiki to a lesser degree, will be treated relatively kindly, even Akane. I... kinda her, when she's not with Ranma anyway. She's not so bad.**

 **It's no secret I hold Happosai and Nabiki in great disdain. Both of them were just so fuckin' annoying in the original. Not once does Nabiki ever get what's coming to her for all the shit she pulled in canon, even sabotaging the contrived wedding at the end of the manga. I get that Rumiko wanted her to be this imposing evil villain being a threat to Ranma with her brains instead of her brawns, but good god, man, she just comes off as so overbearing, and so hand-held to. If everyone would've stopped passing the idiot ball around they would've realized she couldn't do anything to them if they got in her face. *I smh.***

 **It makes Ranma feel like a wannabe tough-guy version of Keitaro Urashima from Love Hina, pretending to be tough when really he's a wimp letting everyone walk all over him, but that's just me. I love female Ranma to bits, she's awesome. So playful and sassy, I love her, but male Ranma makes me want to put a gun to my head.**

 **What do you think? Am I just exaggerating or do you agree with my mini rant? I know, far cry to me saying I want this to be a kind fic to ranting to how much I hate Nabiki and Happosai :D. Post your thoughts down below and I'll see you all in the next one.**

 **Peace.**


	5. Conflicted Feelings

**Disclaimer: I don't own YuYu Hakusho or Ranma**

 **Warning: Chapter contains brief moments of emo Ranma. Bear with it. It'll pass for now.**

* * *

"Gah…" The bandana-clad trainee of transcendence moaned, thankfully having the heavenly comfort of the lap of his crush beneath his head to balance out the severe strain of his body. He very much appreciated his sensei's nudge to Akane prompting her to rest his head on her lap as they all sat around the low dining table in the living room. Each of his muscles were tightened like knots and ached like he had been pounded by a crushing boulder, but in truth, he had. He had fallen over one too many times in his sprint around the world the equivalent to a normal human's daily jog.

"Ryoga, what's wrong?" Ah, there was some silver-lining to feeling half-dead already, just steps shy of knocking on death's doorstep. Akane, angelic voice, reaching down to soothingly trace her fingers through his hair, gazing down at him in comforting affection.

"…Sensei made me do laps around Tokyo," Ryoga remarked, struggling in vain to direct a half-hearted glare to said sensei, who was one of the three who wasn't sat in seiza, voice incredibly hoarse and low, "…But I teleported," He coughed, wheezing deeply, "Didn't make it back 'til noon… then Sensei made me balance four big water vases on my legs and shoulders for another six hours… It was hell."

"Aw, you poor thing," Ryoga stiffened, his sudden shy movement triggering the soreness in his body. Akane just continued to twin her fingers through his locks of raven hair, soft gaze enhancing as he relaxed into her touch, "A certain jerk could've at least taken it easy on you for your first day," She glared at that someone sitting leisurely across from her by Ryoga's feet.

"Oh, man up, you big wuss," Yusuke demanded, roguish grin proving he was far from serious sitting with one knee hoisted up to his chest and the other spread out before him. The picture of a laid-back sloth in all its glory, "I guarantee the shit I put you through puts hair on your chest." Akane glared in evident annoyance at him at his half-baked reasoning for torturing Ryoga. Unfortunately, Genma agreed, traditionally sat in seiza across from the harsh trainer beside his long-time Tendo friend.

"I agree. Harsh training is not only the key to strengthening one's body but it also enforces discipline," The bespectacled martial artist vouched for the demon reborn, a sagacious air about him.

"Right. 'Cos I'm such a shining example of discipline," Genma's own disciple mockingly verified, still in female form since last changing into one and sat in bored disinterest beside Yusuke, cheek pressed against her palm and legs crossed in a boyish fashion.

"Oh hush boy!" Genma demanded, promptly going on the elusive, "Don't make light of the results of my training," The martial artist's nigh perfect dodge of the hidden accusation was met by the raspberry of his currently red-haired disciple, prompting him to glare back at her.

Yusuke lightly nudged the thoroughly exhausted Ryoga with his elbow, careful not to warrant Akane's ire. Not that he wouldn't have dealt with her if she tried to impose herself on him. He was just being considerate. He wouldn't purposely antagonize someone just so he could put them in their place, "Eh! Hear see that, bro? Red here underwent her own hard-ass boot camp. Shoot, if she can, you can too."

Ryoga scoffed, lightly turning his head in disdain at the idea of his rival enduring the same severe levels of regimes he was put through, "Ha! As if that asshole could survive the hell you put me through, Sensei."

Ranma predictably rose to the challenge, eliciting collective sighs from her father, Soun and was what now her former fiancée, "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Well shows what you know. Pops ran my butt dry throughout my training montages!"

"Ptff! Come back to me when you've carried a boulder half way across the globe and back again Saotome!"

"Ha! Easy-peasy. That's the minimum requirement to last in Pop's boot camp. If ya can't do much you're a wimp in our book!"

"You're so full of it, Saotome." Ranma's sharp cringe to his flat accusation was all the evidence Ryoga needed to expose her bluff, but still he challenged, "If it's so 'easy-peasy' for you then why don't you try taking Sensei's hellish training."

Ranma expertly recovered from being caught flat-footed, regaining her bravado from the probing eyes turning her way. All except Yusuke who was distancing himself from the argument by looking out into the open, "Heh, I would, but I can already beat your Sensei, easy."

"You wish," Ryoga finalized tonelessly.

"I can too!" Ranma insisted defensively.

"Then prove it."

"Fine! I will," Ranma accepted, shifting her razor-sharp glare from disciple to master in one swift turn of the head, "Hey, you!" She nudged the disinterested master none too lightly in the shoulder, further feeling annoyed when he just looked at her with no real heat in his gaze, like she wasn't worth the time of day, "Let's go! Mano-a-mano!" She stood aerobically, springing from Yusuke's side to his flank just in front of the back garden, becoming more increasingly irritated by his lack of response.

"Uh-huh."

"Darn it! I just challenged ya. Take this seriously!"

"Not so nice when the shoe's on the other foot, is it, Ranma?" Akane quipped dryly, making Ranma slump her head. This was possibly karma's doing, punishing her for all the times she made light sport out of Akane's martial artist prowess. The urge to apologize to the girl swelled up inside of her being on the receiving end of their back-and-forth. Being looked down upon like her skills were just insignificant by comparison really strung her ego.

"Look, can ya 'least try to look interested?" Ranma requested, finally drawing a sigh of seeming acceptance from her desired opponent. Finally, a positive response from the non-responsive warrior. Ranma had almost been inclined to believe he had fallen asleep long before the idea of a spar between them ever came up to spare her pride. She even already knew what he was preparing to do when he lazily lifted-up his arm, beckoning her forward with his fingers. He had used that trick on her the day he met her to scold her about not being so bitter to assistance.

Ranma _never_ forgot a trick, always engraving it to memory to lessen the risks of being caught out by it again to absolute zero.

"Oh, what now?" Ranma followed along sarcastically, even lowering herself to Yusuke's fingers, instantly flipping back onto the porch when Yusuke flicked his index and middle fingers toward her, "Ha! Nice try, pal! But Ranma Sa-." Like the fiancées and rivals that fuelled the chaos of her life, an unexpected gale of powerful wind _ferociously_ slammed into her, carrying her off of the porch and into the back garden, sending her skipping off of the grass like a pebble before landing in the koi pond with a huge splash, "Aah!"

"And I win," Yusuke finalized in bored nonchalance, lowering his fingers and turning from the decidedly defeated red head.

His de-facto audience were stunned, some less so than others. The eldest and middle daughters of Soun were too in control of their emotions by nature to be gaping like fishes, and Akane just wasn't eccentric enough to be goggling her eyes wide in a cartoonish fashion like her father and Genma, so they merely gawked normally, mouths slightly open to the whole display Yusuke demonstrated with barely a budge of his muscles.

"Whoa…" Ryoga exhaled faintly, voice barely an audible breath in the wind, "What was that, Sensei?"

"Air."

"Urameshi-san…" Akane complained.

"No, seriously, that was air," Yusuke insisted, grinning a little sheepishly, "Well a shockwave to be precise," At Akane's tilt of the head, he knew he would be hard-pressed explaining what he meant. He was terribly inadequate at exposition, but he'd try his best to give them a brief idea of his demonstration for them to draw their own conclusions, "The harder you hit the more air you create. You start hitting hard enough you can create a dozen of those things I just whipped up."

"Oh, I got it!" Akane reached, unknowingly to her filling the young man on her lap with pride, "When you flicked at Ranma just then you did it so fast you produced a shockwave!"

"Oh?" Nabiki realized, flashbacks of Ranma's earlier bouts with her cash cow coming to mind, 'So it's like those things Kuno-baby used against Saotome. Interesting.'

'A little slow for my tastes, but meh, she got the gist of it,' Yusuke mused, tactfully keeping his evaluation of Akane's break down of his display to himself, fangs protruding from his lips in a bashful grin, "Nailed it."

'Oh Akane, you're so smart,' Every time his mouth opened to compliment Akane on her assessment of his sensei's – at first glance – enigmatic display of pushing air in Saotome's face butterflies emerged in the pit of his stomach, multiplying like hares and carrying whatever little nerve he once had away with them, leaving him feeling dreary, 'Yeah, right. Like I could tell her that.' His features fell into their usual desolate expression at that realization.

"Absolute skill means absolute nothing in the face of absolute power," Genma rhymed sombrely, Soun mimicking his expression devoid from the shock of seeing martial prowess nullified by sheer physical strength itself.

"I agree Saotome."

Yusuke smirked. They weren't entirely wrong but they weren't all right either. Warriors like his long-time friend Kurama or one of his greatest adversaries in Sensui would've begged to differ with their conclusion. Both took the best of both worlds, being highly skilful but also possessing the extreme power to make that skill matter, something of which Ranma lacked. She was very skilful, perhaps even on Sensui's level if he were basing her on hand-to-hand prowess alone, but until she moved past C-class in the spiritual department she wouldn't be scratching Toguro's muscular armour let alone Sensui's.

A violent eruption of exploding rubble voluminously vibrated from Ranma's direction, promptly causing Yusuke to jump indistinctly before he whirled around to find a cloud of smoke billowing forth obscuring the obvious hole smashed in the dojo's wall.

"What the fuck was that?" Yusuke mused aloud, and his eyebrow raised in curiosity from Soun's passive sigh of grief telling him he knew what the disturbance was but was powerless to do anything to prevent it. Yusuke doubted it was the diminutive old man's doing. It could've just been his arrogance talking but he liked to think he did an excellent job intimidating Happosai earlier. All his dark thoughts of murdering him that manifested itself into his devilish aura he shrouded the dojo in also should've warded him off, so who could Soun be referring to-?

"I wonder who the lad has attracted to my home this time?" Wait, what?

"He brings shame on his poor old Dad with his reckless behaviour," Genma cried hysterically, further boggling Yusuke's mind. Even his supposedly ditzy "fiancée" happily calling out to him wasn't enough to spur him from his astonished trance which was becoming increasingly disgusted with each accusation Ranma had piled on her.

"Yusuke-airen!~"

"What else is new?" Akane grumped dryly, apparently hard of hearing.

'Why're they all pointing fingers at Ranma?' Yusuke mused to himself, staring at them like they had all grown second heads. Soun noticed his incredulous stare, feeling the overwhelming urge to fidget uncontrollably from such an unbelieving stare, as though he was questioning their sanity.

"Is something the matter, my liege?" Soun fidgeted under the intensity of his gaze, promptly causing his youngest daughter's head to snap to Yusuke in disbelief of her own before she realized he was new to the flow of things. He wasn't used to Ranma initiating all the bizarre occurrences that often quickly spiralled out of control in their lives.

"Yeah. Kinda."

"Would you like to discuss the matter?"

Yusuke opened his mouth to contest the accusation of Ranma with a raised finger, but abruptly closed it, choosing to instead wave his hand in dismissal, "Never mind, s'not important." Ultimately, they could've been justified for assuming the worst of Ranma, even if it didn't sit right with the reborn demon that they were all to content to point the blame at her without evidence. He barely knew Ranma or anyone of the Tendo family and Genma, or the incidents that take place in their lives. For all he knew Ranma could've been a pot-stirrer, creating trouble wherever she treaded, in which case their trigger-happy accusation of her was a little more understandable, but it still didn't sit right with him that they were all too satisfied to just point the gun at the redhead for a spontaneous occurrence that may or may not have been her fault.

Yusuke considered himself a fair guy, which was why he was withdrawing judgement until he come gather more evidence on the seeming Ranma-prejudice.

"I… see," The patriarch said with uncertainty. Somewhere in him told him that wasn't the end of the annoyance chipping away at his saviour's patience, but he buried the thought to the furthest recess of his mind. Such things led to confrontation and Soun hated confronting matters directly, so if he could avoid doing so he would happily take it, "Well, yes. With you here I'm certain whenever disturbance Ranma brought along won't be such a threat."

There he goes, blaming Ranma. Yusuke resisted calling him out on it, instead reassuring him of his safety with a grin, "Count on it."

"Splendid!~"

"Yusuke-airen!~"

"Oh, what now!?" The redhead demanded, grumpily pulling her soaking wet form free from the pond she was flung into, glaring in the direction one of her usual suitors of the fiancée-mess was heading to, 'Darn it! That smarted! How the hell did he do that?!' It was a rhetorical question. Ranma knew what Yusuke did, knew how insignificant of a 'technique' it was, but knowing what it was didn't make her feel any better. In fact, it made her feel ten thousand times worse, knowing she was brushed aside like a kid trying to playfully beat up his father for kicks, 'Stupid jerk.' She felt a small window of retribution open seeing one of her usual annoyances now springing to his side. It was her devious hope that Shampoo could grate on his nerves the same way she used to irritate her.

'Ha! Let's see ya muscle your way outta this one, pal!'

"Yusuke-airen!~" Shampoo bubbled. Surprisingly, she didn't immediately try to glomp Yusuke but instead sweetly sat aside him on her knees, hands cupped to her cheek.

'Oh… kay,' Ranma mused in incredulity, 'She's acting weird.'

Yusuke was far from pleased to see her, which only made the Amazonian warrior less inclined to possessively clamp onto him. He didn't even look nervous. He just stared at her with total apathy. It was actually a little unsettling and reminded Shampoo just how different he was from Ranma. If this was the cursed martial artist she lovingly approached he would've been a nervous rack, which would have encouraged her to force herself onto him knowing he would submit to her.

These vibes of acceptance were entirely vacant with Yusuke.

"Shampoo, why didn't you use the door?" Yusuke asked plainly.

"W-What?" Shampoo stuttered, caught entirely off guard. Surprisingly, no one had ever asked her why she hadn't used the front door like a normal person whenever she came barging through a wall and she honestly didn't know how to react.

"The front door, young lady. Why didn't you use it?" He emphasized.

"Because I-?"

"Someone's gotta fix that," Yusuke reasoned, gesturing over to the damaged wall of Shampoo's doing, "The shit you break doesn't just get 'magically' repaired overnight and repairs don't come cheap. Remember that next time you decide to just charge through someone else's wall with no fucks to give."

"Oh?" Well when laid out to her like this it really had the effect of making her feel extremely inconsiderate, "Shampoo sorry."

"S'not me who you gotta apologize to," Yusuke corrected, gesturing with his head to the owner of the damaged dojo looking surprised, "It's him."

To her credit, though, Shampoo did turn toward Soun, pressing her head formally to the ground by way of apology, "Shampoo sorry."

"Uh…" Soun fumbled, truthfully caught flat-footed himself. He never expected any culprit to offer him any semblance of an apology after damaging his property. Normally, his first instinct was to just blame Ranma, followed by throwing the destructive youth out of his home until she could either round up the money needed to fund repairs or wait out the duration of her punishment. It had become almost second nature at this point. Realizing the girl was still awaiting a response, Soun coughed, "Never mind, dear. I'm certain the council will fund the worst of it." Although he would still have to chip in himself, just the acquired amount needed to summon the repair team out to his residence to fix his wall.

"Nah. Don't worry about funding squat. Leave that to her folks," Yusuke advised with a cheeky grin, putting clouds of confusion over everyone's heads.

"What you mean?" Shampoo asked first.

"Yes, I would very much like to know too, my liege," Soun followed up.

Yusuke sighed, running his hand through his raven-hair. Did no one here use their brain? Damn, "Simple. She wrecked house so naturally the debt falls on her old man or lady."

Soun inhaled in realization, "Ah! I see your point. Very clever of you my liege."

"Sensei's amazing," Ryoga said in a hushed whisper, promptly getting his master to shake his head.

"Great-Grandmother be mad at Shampoo," The Chinese-descent acknowledged.

"Well, sucks to be you. Should've thought about that before you decided to bulldoze through Soun's wall," Yusuke told her matter-of-factly, crossing his arms uncaring of the potential consequences she could face from her guardian for the debt her destructive nature brought upon her.

"You're right!~" Shampoo quickly beamed up at him in agreement, shifting shyly in place, rubbing her thighs together as she gazed down at her lap, "Shampoo have hug from airen now?"

Yusuke rolled his eyes, "Knock yourself out." She squealed, tossing her arms around his neck and pressing her breasts against his muscular chest, instantly lightening Yusuke's mood. He may not have wanted to marry her, but he would admit making skin on skin contact with her was beyond heavenly, 'Guy could get used to this.'

"No way!" Shampoo eased off on the cuddling, slightly pushing herself from her new beloved to dumbly look over in her former sweetheart's direction in her cursed form, mouth open agape at them, "You never ask me if wanna squeeze the living hell outta me. Why does he get fancy privileges and I don't huh!?"

"Because I'm not a pushover, maybe?"

"Shut up!"

"Hmm!~" Sadly, Ranma's pride was set to undergo a world of hurting. Shampoo was seriously considering Yusuke's lazy reasoning for her not forcing herself on him the same way she used to force herself on Ranma, "Yup! That about right!" She cuddled him tightly, "Yusuke-airen has big balls, boy-Ranma don't."

The winces of agony were collective by everyone who had heard Shampoo's reasoning for being accommodating for Yusuke and not for Ranma. Even Ryoga and Kasumi all of people shared the unison "Ooh!" verb of absolute pain.

"Ouch! That's a kick in the nuts," Yusuke commented.

"Humph! Now you can experience a faction of the hell you put me through, Saotome!" Ryoga exclaimed.

"Oh Ranma," Akane sympathized.

"Looks like Saotome isn't as manly as he… or she thought she was," Nabiki snarked.

"Poor Ranma," Kasumi sympathized.

"Oh the humanity!" Soun exclaimed.

"He brings shame on me!" Genma cried.

Meanwhile Ranma had never felt more emasculated in her life.

"Oh man."

One way or the other she would beat Yusuke and restore her destroyed pride.

* * *

 **Coasting Through Life**

* * *

A coal-tinted boot stomped its mark on its precipice point of a mountain overlooking the rising sun bathing the capital city of Japan in its bright radiance, flicking its golden rays off of the darkened lenses of his ski glasses. Finally, he had completed his journey to Tokyo, only getting side tracked a couple more times to help the people with their problems. Such as leaping up to a tree to rescue a cat stuck on its branch for a little girl, rescuing a lady from a burning house, assisting an elderly woman across the street before shortly helping her with her groceries; that kind of stereotypical heroic boy-scout duties.

While it was true Recruit was an efficient killing machine he was still built to serve and protect the environment and humans, eliminating any threats to their stabilization and longevity, threats like the lawbreakers. And while Recruit's primary mission was to eliminate Ranma Saotome, he was also tasked the sub-quests of eradicating any of the other misusing curse form criminals in his line of sight. It wasn't nearly as vital as destroying Ranma, but it was important enough that Recruit should stop to engage one if he was to come across one in his hunt for the Jusenkyo Preservation Society's main thorn.

…Which brought him to now.

As he flickered off his perch from the mountain, reaching the city below in one blurring step of nigh-untraceable speed and skipping off the rooftops of the many houses he passed in blurs, his scanners detected one of the side criminals targeted for death on the bounds of breaking fair play with his murderous intent trudging through the early streets of the Nerima district in depression.

"…Shampoo," The long-sleeved, long-haired Amazonian sighed wistfully, shoulders weighed down by the palpable sense of helplessness he felt at being unable to fight for her hand. That man's killing intent had been completely terrifying and indecipherable. Mousse didn't even want to so much as look at him again much less adamantly challenging him time and again like he had done so with Ranma countless of times until he won Shampoo from him, "Damn it!"

He cursed his cowardice, tried to shallow it and strategize like he knew he could, even repeatedly telling himself if he could just estrange the devilish man in his web of trickery his frightening aura would diminish to his senses, but no matter how times he envisioned the plans he would enact each one ended the same; in his bloody death.

For the first time since he had started engaging other contestants for his one true love's hand, Mousse felt truly defeated, unconditionally crushed, any semblance of hope that he could pick himself back up to just try again until he could succeed leaving his heart. There were no re tries. Unlike Saotome, he had made it clear he did not want to be pestered by him and his schemes.

"What have I got left to live for now? Now he was starting to sound like Ryoga.

The ground violently erupted into an upheaval of dust and rubble right in front of the depressed warrior, knocking him back from the force generated from the explosive tremor.

"What the hell-?" He was spooked, sent spiralling on his rear. He covered his face with his arms from the dust sprawling forth from the source of the sudden eruption of concrete earth, "What was that?" He wasn't picking up nearly the same frequent of malevolence as before, so that was a relieving sign, but he was still sensing high levels of killing intent. He couldn't afford to drop his guard, "Who are you!?" He demanded.

The clouds parted, revealing at face-value an average stealthy military-dressed young man slightly on the short side. A black woolly hat concealed his identity, cloaked over his small round head like a mask. A pair of ski onyx-tinted glasses were placed over the eye-holes in the mask-like hat masquerading his expression as stoic. Over his chest, he flexed a long sleeved dark grey military top underneath a sleeveless black vest Mousse had to guess was bulletproof based on the sheer number of bullet holes he could see littered all over. Black gloves, iron-pressed combat pants and black combat boots otherwise finished Recruit's soldier attire.

"Who are you?" Mousse commanded again, setting himself into a stance, "You look suspicious."

Recruit didn't answer, only confirming seemingly to himself that he had found one of his men, "Tango acquired."

"So it's a fight you want, is it?" Mousse smirked, soundly unprepared for the cybernetically-enhanced warrior's charge. The ground was left cracked from the mere act of Recruit pushing off it and Mousse found an elephant-like crushing blow driven into his ribs, ' _He's fast!'_ He choked, _catapulted_ like a cannon several miles down the sidewalk by the fence of the canal, his back shovelling through the concrete ground better any digging machine ever could.

He skidded to an haltingly painful stop against a telephone booth, shattering the glass from the force of which he collided against it with. He groaned loudly in agony, pressing his palm against the dented metal of the interior and forcing himself to his feet, ignoring the glass shards seeping into his skin. He had endured several beatings at the hands of his beloved. He'd to have some pain resistance.

"What the hell-?" He wheezed hoarsely, squeaking from the immense burning sensation resonating from his back, "…Even that scumbag Saotome and Shampoo has never hit me _that_ hard," With the full intent to crush bones upon impact. Both his beloved and romantic rival instinctively held back because they didn't want to inflict serious bodily harm onto him; the kind of harm which could be fatal.

Nervously, he touched at his damp back, wincing from the aggravation of his wound and felt his hand soaked before facing his palm in petrified shock. His entire front palm was coated in the crimson-red liquid of his own blood, 'Is this guy trying to kill me?' Like actually aiming to take his life with each strike he delivered to him and not just exclaiming he would kill him for exaggeration purposes. Many times Mousse had told Ranma he would annihilate him for stealing Shampoo, but he had never been serious.

His threats had always been metaphorical.

Mousse stiffened, heart skipping several beats in anticipation from the heavy, methodical footsteps of Death itself taken humanoid form approaching his way, shallowing down his sudden fear to meet Recruit's shielded gaze as the cybernetic warrior followed the beaten path of carnage left behind in the wake of his first attack on the cursed criminal.

'This is bad! If I make even one mistake this guy might seriously kill me!' Mousse gritted his teeth, clenching his fists tightly in preparation for a battle that would most likely decide whether he lived or perished. His very life seemingly hung in the balance. He couldn't afford any slip-ups or-.

"Hey, mister."

"What?"

A string of what had recently become his most lethal substance shot forth from a toy model gun designed to hold and fire bursts of it for mere enjoyment purposes and landed in his face, drowning his heart in despair before his form plummeted in on itself. The one responsible for surely condemning him to death, a little boy, just skipped merrily away, innocently oblivious to the fact that he had just assured a fellow human's demise.

"Quack, quack." He squirmed from his decidedly too huge robe, flapping his white wings despairingly as his beak moved a mile a minute, "Quack, quack!" He quacked desperately, wanting to plea his case so badly, to cry for help or for any convenient hot water to land on him but it was all for naught. The imposing shadow of his escort to the world beyond the living loomed over his tiny body, causing him to freeze and slowly rotate his head to stare up in horror at Recruit's emotionless face, "Quack…"

He attempted to run, but Recruit's hand quickly snapped around his throat and pulled him up to his height.

He said all but one word that made the odd bespectacled duck pale.

"Eat."

Another weakness of Recruits.

They loved roasted duck.

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

* * *

The following day Ranma stormed off without waiting for Akane and Yusuke to walk with him to school, eating nothing but a piece of toast and curtly telling his former fiancée to leave him alone when she had tried to stop him.

He needed to be alone in his grief, having barely restrained his anguished tension since essentially being told he just wasn't man enough for his needs to be accommodated. It was humiliating, painfully so. Real, pure seeds of unadulterated hatred began to sprout in his heart. He truly knew he now hated Shampoo for trampling all over his pride like _dirt_. Before Yusuke arrived, back when the flow of events wasn't disrupted, he couldn't say his negative feelings toward the bubbly Amazonian were that strong. He didn't like her, but he definitely never possessed such a fierce aversion of her that the very sight of her made his skin crawl in disgust.

At best, he tolerated her, and at worst he avoided her completely. Never had he felt such spite and rage at anyone but insulting his masculinity was a define way to earn his ire, "She treated me like dirt." Embracing him lovingly, gazing at him affectionately, but never respecting his boundaries, only to throw whatever little connection she'd assumed she breached between them away when a more confident man stepped onto the picture. By extension, he resented Yusuke, but his feelings toward him wasn't as straightforward. Unlike Shampoo, Yusuke was remorseful, sensitive to his embarrassment and even tried to offer him an apology for Shampoo's tactless honesty, but Ranma wasn't in the mood for pity and rejected it, further resenting the delinquent for the unusual kindness he showed him, and by extension, resented himself for being so bitter toward it.

That was all his heart ever yearned for, to be treated with compassion and to be empathized with, not with contempt and spite by everyone around him. He had that and yet his ego was pushing it away, leaving him in an anguished torment of conflicted feelings, "Damn it!" He cursed aloud, bitter frustration erupting from his throat as his determined pace slowed to a melancholic trudge. For once, he wasn't even walking on the fence. His feet were firmly on the ground, symbolizing how grounded he felt.

"S'not fair," He complained lowly, miserably thinking of just how in-control Yusuke was of Shampoo, "What does he got that I don't?" Social skills, the ability and the swagger to freely communicate with the opposite sex without dissolving into a spluttering mess, and Ranma greatly envied him for it, "This sucks!" He pounded his fist against his palm, contemplatively mulling over his solution to heal his bruised ego, "Gotta beat the guy. It's the only way I can get back my lost pride!" He told himself resolutely, features falling as he whispered, "I just gotta."

The almost inaudible sounds of sizzling fire drew the young man from his tormented musings of reclamation, "What's that?" He wondered, catching sight of a rising black stream of smoke. Either it was because he desired an escape from his ravaging thoughts of sanity, was curious or even an unholy combination of the two, Ranma found himself following the smoke signal, which led him to the usual wide open parking space clearance his rival typically set up camp at, only instead of Ryoga an inappropriately dressed military-geared young man was set upon a large wooden log with his back to him, in front of a fire producing the signal-like smoke roasting was some meat.

'Okay,' Ranma deadpanned, intelligently reacting to the oddly placed individual, which ironically made him well-placed in a district full of such quirky people already, 'Kinda odd to see a military-guy camping out here, but meh.' Ultimately, the camping armed soldier was just that; the expected norm. He wasn't normal, in any of the other districts of Tokyo, but in Nerima he blended in like the everyday commoner, as such was the case in the realm of eccentricity.

The uncommon had become the common and the common was the uncommon.

He was part of the norm thus Ranma would've walked right on if his eyes hadn't caught sight of the unmistakeable pair of distinctive thick round lenses just behind the soldier, making him gasp.

'Hey, ain't those…' Mousse's. He would know those glasses from anywhere, usually sitting on the Amazonian's forehead because he was too stubborn to put them on, 'I got a bad feeling about this.' His eyes narrowed, a trickle of sweat rolling from his forehead. He watched, apprehensively, heart tightening as the alleged cannibal removed his roasted meal from its makeshift grill of sticks and lifted it into the air, revealing a well-cooked browned whole meat that looked frighteningly duck-like in shape.

'No way…' Ranma trembled, eyes wide in petrified horror to the scene he borne a front view row to, the stuff of nightmares. He gripped the wall beside him, trying to stabilize his shaking hand as he frightfully noted the hairstyle of the roasted duck heavily resembled that of Mousse's in cursed form, 'Is that really…?' He didn't want to finish as his beads of sweat turned icy cold down his visage.

He knew one thing for sure though.

Shit just got real.

* * *

 **Conflicted Feelings**

* * *

 **Mousse is** **dead and what a way to go out, killed as a duck,** **roasted to a tasty crisp and eaten** **by the mighty boy scout Recruit. How will Ranma flare against this powerful foe near the level of 40% Toguro? Will his likely defeat be the thing he needs to spur him into going under Yusuke's wing? After all, he wants to be the best. Well, sometimes to be the best you gotta learn from the best. That's all I got for you Ranma buddy.**

 **Review my great people and I might just update next week. ;)**

 **Catch you all in the next one.**

 **Peace.**


	6. When Chaos Collide

**Disclaimer: I don't own YuYu Hakusho or Ranma 1/2**

 **What do ya get when you pit someone who attracts chaos against someone who IS chaos itself?**

 **You get Ranma vs Recruit.**

 **Enjoy :D**

* * *

"Ranma, wait up!" Akane hurried, rushing after her fellow Furinkan High School student hurriedly pacing out of the front door to accompany him to the establishment. Just because they had been walking to school together since day one of their dysfunctional relationship it had become their routine. Not sticking to the script would make her feel like she had done something to aggravate him needlessly.

"Leave me alone, will ya!" Ranma snapped, actually evoking a flinch from his former fiancée from the sheer venom in his tone. As if sensing her frightful hesitance, Ranma's face softened to bitter remorse, "I just… need to be left alone, okay?"

"But Ranma-!" She pressed, but the cursed martial artist pushed through the entrance of the dojo, heading toward the dojo's exit at breakneck speed, "Ranma!" When he disappeared from view, Akane's own features softened in sympathy, a hand on her chest, "…Ranma."

"Let him go, Akane," The newest house guest suggested in a relaxed tone.

She snapped around, a little annoyed at Yusuke's seemingly cold, uncaring indifference to Ranma's plight as the aforementioned young man leaned up against the wall behind her with his arms crossed, "But Urameshi-!"

"Don't worry about it," Yusuke cut in, "He probably just needs to blow off some steam. You know, after last night and all."

Akane's eyes softened, "That's what I don't get though," She pointed out, "He's getting rid of all of his engagements. I thought he would be happy."

"Yeah, that would seem odd, huh?" Yusuke grinned slyly, "But I think I gotta an idea of Ranma's beef."

Akane blinked, "You do?"

Yusuke followed up with a nod, pushing himself from his perch up against the wall, "C'mon, I'll walk ya to school. I'll lay it out to ya on the way."

"Okay."

Yusuke jerked his head in the direction of the walkway to roar with authority, "Yo, Ryo! Heading out for a sec. Do those stretches I showed ya while I'm gone! When I get back we're heading out to a find nice spot to train. Gotta real sweet evasive technique to show ya."

"Really?"

"Really. It's called dodge."

"Hey!"

"Hahaha!" Yusuke bellowed out with hearty laughter, straightening his posture back to Akane after one last give and take by way of farewell, "Alright, catch ya in a bit." He elevated his eyebrow in a perfect display of feigned ignorance to Akane's look of stifled amusement, "What?"

"You shouldn't make fun of Ryoga," She insisted, though her bursts of suppressed laughter spoke the contrary.

A sparkle of opportunity glinted in Yusuke's right eye, "Ah, I see how it is," He remarked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively Akane's way, though the implications were flying way over her head, "Coming to my lil bro's aid like that. Don't even try to hide it. You got your sights on him now, right?"

Now the full weight of Yusuke's sassy innuendo dawned on Akane in full. If there was one thing Akane could easily decipher if not hints and clues then it was the more direct approach of playful teasing, just because it didn't require her to think too much on the subject of romance. Watching the bright curtain fall of cherry blossoms rise over the girl's flushed face was the sweet spot for the demonic powerhouse.

"What?! No! Ryoga's the sweetest friend ever! I would never-!"

"I got ya, I got ya," Yusuke soothed, inwardly cringing at Akane's induction of Ryoga in her friend zone, 'Ouch! Hope Ryo didn't hear ANY of that. She just friend-zoned his ass hard,' He concluded internally, somewhat resisting the urge to shake his head and pinch the bridge of his nose in his self-annoyance if only to not totally drop the ball in regard to his self-proclaimed little brother's crush on her.

Even if Ryoga hadn't actually informed him of Akane's complete ignorance to his feelings toward her, it went without saying. With Ryoga's timid nature when interacting with an attractive female like Akane, it was entirely natural to assume he would run into trouble professing his quote-unquote undying love for her. The fact that he was still chasing after her was all the evidence Yusuke needed to just know Akane was unaware of Ryoga's crush on her.

That and he wasn't an idiot. Just simple-minded.

'Got my work cut out for me match-making them together,' He mulled over, his brow souring, 'If they ever.' He liked Ryoga. He was a good guy if not a little on the pathetic side so he tended not to think of the likely outcome of his and Akane's forgoing relationship, but he was practical, not idealistic. He knew such one-sided match-ups like Ryoga and Akane usually ended in the other's unrequited love.

He banished said pondering thoughts of whether the two were compatible to the deepest parts of his mind and offered his arm to the girl in a gentlemanly manner, sassy grin sweeping across his lips, "Alright, shall we hit the road, madam?"

Akane beamed. Being jestingly treated like a proper lady by a ruffian play-acting as a defined gentleman was a beat she could sing to, "Sure!~" She intertwined her arms around his, almost letting go from the refined muscles she heavenly felt, marvelling at their solid structure, "Why, thank you, my fair honourable gentleman." Yusuke snickered, leading the girl off the dojo premises and onto the sidewalk by the canel's fence line: Ranma's usual walking perch.

"I just don't get it," Akane mentioned, "Ranma's getting all his loose ends cut off. I thought he'd be happy if we're no longer engaged. Even Shampoo's stopped chasing him now," She crinkled up her features in frustration, "Ugh! I just don't get him!"

"Ranma's just a prideful guy," Yusuke offered, gesturing his free arm forward open at the palm by way of explanation, "I'm sure under normal circumstances he'd be thrilled to be clearing his plate, if he was the one cleaning it himself," He homed in, "Ranma's just the kinda dude who likes to take care of stuff himself, without help, you feel?"

She glanced down slightly in remorse, "That's so… ugh!" She stomped her foot a bit, only slightly disrupting their easy pace, "If it gets rid of all his problems, it shouldn't matter if he had help at all! Ugh, idiot! He makes me so mad!"

"I feel ya," The godlike demon taken humanoid form agreed easily, "But guys like Ranma are very touchy about their pride. They think having help makes 'em weak."

Akane smiled grimly, "Tell me about it." In some respects, she could sympathize with Ranma's forgoing quandary having been in his exact shoes when he unintentionally rid her of her myriad of challenging suitors. It rubbed her much the wrong way as Yusuke's intervention was rubbing him the wrong way that he had helped her be rid of them, even by mistake, but she could get over it and move on, then so could he too in her opinion. He just needed to stop being difficult.

"Ranma just needs to learn having a hand doesn't make him weak," He shook his head, grinning ruefully, "Actually, it makes him the opposite."

Akane turned his way, eyes shining with interest, "Really?"

Yusuke nodded with a hum, "Ever heard of the old saying 'It takes a big man to walk away from a fight, but it takes a bigger man to admit he was wrong'?" Akane nodded, "Well apply a similar concept to this. It's easy as hell to point out other people's shortcomings but not so much to call out your own. It takes a big man to look at himself and admit that him by his number one self isn't gonna cut it; that he needs the help of his pals to get the job done."

Akane just stared, gazing up at her senior's unexpected aged countenance in silent awe. He chose his words carefully, it was actually a little surprising to her. The general concept Akane had of Yusuke was that he was one of those hotshot ruffians who roamed the streets looking for trouble, simply based on his style. His medium green dress shirt always remained open allowing those glancing his way to see his sleeveless white wife beater tank top and dog penchant chain marking him as a ghetto thug. Even his raven-hair was slicked back by way of delinquency.

If this wasn't the image of a ruffian Akane didn't know what was. Yet despite all his outward frat-boy show his words were thoughtful, wise, and above all else; real.

"Watch it, you. You're starting to sound like an old man," Akane teased.

Yusuke grinned, caressing the back of his head, "Yeah, I guess, though when you've been through the stuff I have you can't help but feel old."

"What have you been doing?" Akane asked, tilting her head in perplexity, uncertainty shining in her eyes. He made it legitimately sound like he had been dealing with all sorts of psychological affairs for years to have matured well ahead of his physical years, but he didn't look any older than twenty. The only saving graces keeping Yusuke's claim from being entirely farfetched were the few misadventures she had gone on with Ranma during the latter's time in the district of crazy and his overwhelming strength, especially the power. Someone who could effortlessly manhandle the greatest annoyance any of them had ever had to deal with in Happosai most likely had a lofty backstory explaining the origins behind its requirement.

Akane would be lying if she said she wouldn't be intrigued to learn how a young man that couldn't be much older than her could obtain such power and if she herself could ever be that strong.

"I used to work for a detective agency," Yusuke remarked.

"No way."

"Totally."

"Get out!"

"I'll stay right here thank you very much."

"You actually worked as a detective?"

"As true as the sky is blue."

"I don't believe it," Akane breathed out, glancing up to the clouds overhead, "That sounds incredible. You must have been a part of some really neat stuff, huh?"

"You bet," Yusuke clarified, gaze lulling over with fondness, "Kidnapping, conspiracy cases, and even all-out assaults, I did a little of everything. Even murder too."

Akane flinched, turning startled eyes to Yusuke's relaxed, prideful grin, softening soothingly to her discomfort. He knew that discovered case was always guaranteed to be an unsettling one for her or anyone outside of his typical crew to hear. Murder was not a concept so subsidiary that a minor could be part of without coming out bearing deep psychological scars. Neither were any of the cases Yusuke mentioned he took part in during his time as a detective, but murder was on its own level of grim.

'No wonder he sounds so old,' Akane snapped to realization in her mind. Just witnessing a murder let alone discovering the murderer would force just about anyone to grow up well ahead of their years, 'Did he even have the chance to be a kid?'

The light-hearted atmosphere the two exuded in their stroll to school dampened.

"How old were you went you joined the detective agency?" Akane asked carefully.

"Fourteen," He answered, breezy fanged grin still etched onto his face like it belonged, soothing Akane's concern for his questionable sanity.

'It's just as I thought,' She realized, eyes saddening mercifully to the ground her feet sauntered upon, 'He never got the chance to grow up.' She perked up in curiosity to the flick to her forehead by two fingers, flicking her head up to Yusuke's puckish grin, "Urameshi-san!"

"Appreciate the concern honestly, but don't get so worked up over it. My time in the agency were some of the best damned years of my life I assure you," He gazed ahead of them, eyes softening in heartfelt recognition of cherished memories of his time as a Sprit Detective and all the friends and allies he made that he recalled, leaving Akane staring up at him in a refreshed perception; one that was light and positive.

She had been given perspective and with it, her respect for the powerhouse enigma grew. At first glance, Yusuke could almost be mistaken as a ne'er-do-well ruffian two steps short of bad mouthing the wrong police officer and ending up in the penitentiary, but assuming that of him without getting to know him would be unfair. Under that hard-man persona lied an experienced veteran who had been forced to mature at a young age, but if all the selfless acts he had showed her already were any indication he had turned out more than decent.

"You're a good man, Urameshi-san," Akane complimented sincerely.

"Thanks," Yusuke soaked it up, "You're not half bad yourself, Akane."

"Humph." Akane lightly scoffed to Yusuke's half-hearted compliment of her character, "You know, I bet Shampoo will be pretty happy her beloved is such a great guy," She sassed, giggling mischievously when Yusuke's expression immediately soured.

"Ptff. As if. She doesn't love me. She only loves the idea of me," Yusuke corrected perceptively.

Akane blinked, "So you're not into Shampoo?"

"Hell no! She's a pain."

"But you were letting her hug you and what's more, you were enjoying it!" Akane pressed on pointedly, eyes narrowing in sudden suspicion, "Hey," He just stared into her eyes questionably, devoid of any sense of nervous fear she had come accustomed to seeing when she pinned her accusing glare on Ranma, "You're not just planning on stringing Shampoo along with a bunch of other girls? Well. _Are you_?"

"I'm no sleazebag," Yusuke answered flatly, holding his gaze firmly against Akane's own fierce judging glance, "S'not gonna happen. I don't run that way. The day I hook up with any girl is the day I change my Facebook status to 'in a relationship'. I'm a one-woman guy."

Akane's expression lightened, her countenance splitting off in a wide bright smile, satisfied that Yusuke had passed her improvised internal test, "Good!" That he was indeed the man she concluded him to be; a sensible, compassionate man she was beginning to admire.

The ambience around them returned to its former serene glory.

Not long after their seemingly established friendship did Yusuke bring them to a halt outside the usual pair of gates Akane once purposefully charged through to meet the head on assault of dozen jocks, "Well, here's your stop," Yusuke quipped.

Akane gasped silently, blinking up at her school of crazy dumbly, "Oh?" She was wondering how much time had actually passed since they set off from the Tendo dojo. It couldn't have been more than ten seconds for all the scenery she noticed, which was none. So immersed in their conversation she felt as though they had been whisked to Furinkan by a teleporting magic carpet.

Yusuke chuckled, "Yeah, I feel ya. Time flies when you're having fun, huh?"

Akane giggled in kind, "Yeah you're right," She squirmed, almost reluctantly, out of her hold on Yusuke's muscular arm, being painfully reminded just how good it felt coming into contact with refined muscles as her arms brushed against his, "Thank you for walking me to school," She said in a low tone, straightening her posture maidenly, her handbag held below her waist in her hands, "And for the talk too. I really appreciate it! I feel like… like I know you a bit better now," She graced him with a content smile.

"No probs," To her surprise Yusuke wrapped her up in a one-armed embrace, pressing her against him and his sculptured figure of heavenly mould, "Glad I could be of service. Remember you got me on speed dial," He whispered resolutely into her hair, "Don't hesitate to buzz if things go south for whatever crazy reason or just need someone to talk to. I'll come running or I'll give you my ear."

It took a moment for the normally pervert-hater to register the skin-on-skin contact of intimacy, but she soon found herself returning it against her better judgement, snaking slender arms around a muscular built and relaxing contently against its solid built. A single, shameless thought of forsaking school for the reminder of the day to just linger against this godlike entity's chest passed through her mind, but she discarded it.

'What am I doing?' She found herself realizing. She was allowing herself to be aroused, getting off on the 'hot guy' embracing her compassionately without even being sexual. In other words, being the very low-life thing she ridiculed many boys for being; a pervert. She wanted to push him away, but her stimulation just wasn't full, and so, she found herself almost snuggling against him, forcefully keeping a moan from seeping from her mouth.

"Thank you, Urameshi-san," She found saying out of instinct to sway her mind from her lustrous thoughts involving Yusuke.

Yusuke broke the hug, stepping out of Akane's personal space much to the girl's expertly hidden chagrin behind a mask of sweetness, "Anytime," If he was aware of her bona-fide masturbation of his solid frame he didn't let it show, "Listen, gotta get back and put Ryo through his paces. You be good, y'hear?"

"Got it!~" Akane chirped sardonically, a sickly sweet smirk emerging on her face, "In the meantime, you try and go easy on Ryoga. It isn't nice to bully the weak."

Ouch. Calling Ryoga weak too on top of already inducting him to her friend-zone. That had to sting his ego if he had one. "I make no promises," He joked, getting a rueful shake of the head from the girl. He pivoted smoothly on his heel, sauntering from Akane with a wave over his shoulder, "See ya."

"See you later, Urameshi-san." She stood, mesmerized in place to the view Yusuke had unintentionally rewarded her with, even just walking with a casual swagger not actively doing anything to warrant the full undivided attention of the opposite sex: and yet, Akane's gaze remained pinned to his figure, roaming every inch of his muscular frame a series of times, each time removing an article of clothing until he was down to his briefs in her perception…

' _Oh,_ get a grip, Akane!' She told herself resolutely, fiercely shaking her head. Forcefully, she pried her lecherous gaze away from the envisioned naked man, instantly getting the unbearable urge to look back. Hesitatingly, she stole a peek, losing herself again in the realm of day dream, 'Oh no.'

This wasn't good.

She couldn't possibly be falling for Urameshi-san, could she?

Coasting Through Life

 **C**

 **H**

 **A**

 **P**

 **T**

 **E**

 **R**

 **SIX**

When Chaos Collide 

Ranma was frightened like he had absolutely never been before, huddled in on himself on his desk as he let out shuddering breaths, tightly embracing his arms for the sought-out security he desperately desired. For the first time in ever, Ranma fought against his natural instincts to accept the bait from a challenger coming for his proverbial head, and bolted, scurrying off to school with his tails between his legs. He cared little for the fact Akane had beaten him to Furinkan.

Just as long as he was away from that murderous cannibal he would content himself on whatever little losses he had as a consequence for going off kilter. So submerged he was in his nightmarish thoughts of a gloved hand being driven through Mousse's chest like a spear before being doused in cold water so the last remnants of his life would leave him in curse form he didn't even notice Ukyo still pining for his affection.

He didn't even give her the time of day. He didn't acknowledge her presence, in fact.

He was used to fights becoming lethal, but no matter high the ante was raised they never crossed that very delicate line of dick-measuring contests to all-out death matches. This was all too real and grim.

'Who would wanna do Mousse in, though?' He found himself pondering thoughtfully, biting down on his thumb. He made a myriad of enemies during his time in Nerima, Mousse being one of them, but they were usually just that; antagonists out to one up him for the hand one of the ladies yearning for his affection. They had spoken about killing him, even threatened to, but had always been metaphorical. They only exaggerated their threats just to sound more intimidating than they should.

Hell, they had never even drawn actual bodily fluid blood from each other in any of their scuffles.

At most, Ranma would send them packing with a few bruised ribs and a bruised ego, so they could challenge him again and again until they were all old and grey.

'Unless it was those Jusenkyo Preservation guys,' He mulled over, nonchalantly tilting back on his chair's two legs until the sudden blast of realization prompted him to straighten up like a whip, 'Of course! It has to be 'em! Duh! That's totally obvious!' He recalled Cologne's relay on the enigmatic, villainous organization. It wasn't much, given that she was as much in the dark about the apparent peacekeepers as he was, but it was enough for Ranma to suspect them as prime suspects in Mousse's potential murder. Cologne even flat out stated they would most likely kill someone breaking their code of conduct.

'Well nothing else screams 'crook' better than actually busting outta jail,' Ranma quipped bitterly, clenching fists and sucking through his teeth as he shuddered in his anger. He had never been truly fond of Mousse so he couldn't say he was saddened by his likely death, just murdering anyone was a definite method to earn his distaste. No one should die by the hands of another, especially in the horrifying manner Mousse had. It sickened Ranma to the bone.

'What's gotten into him?' Akane wondered beside his desk, feeling afar despite sitting right next to him, 'First he runs off to school by himself and now _this_!' She softened her gaze mercifully, 'Is your pride really so important to you, Ranma?'

'Ranma-honey looks pretty shaken up,' Ukyo analysed, optimistic smirk still etching onto her face despite her negative observation of her beloved, 'Meh, nothing my cooking can't fix, and with Akane out of the way getting to Ranma should be a cinch.' She almost couldn't believe her ears when Akane had flat out told her she and Ranma were finished pointlessly trying to wed for the sake of their father's schools. She had to pause as if she were slow, just to take a moment to fully swallow her former romantic rival's no-nonsense statement.

If Ukyo wasn't in school she was sure she would've exploded in overblown joy. She did have a reputation to uphold so she managed to contain herself, but only barely. For Akane, arguably her most dangerous contender in the race for Ranma's hand, to all of a sudden drop out… it was too good to be true.

As much as it pained Ukyo's pride to admit even to herself, Akane was likely the forerunner. She did possess an inherent advantage none of the girls could ever pry from her no matter how persuasive they tried to be, in that she _lived_ with Ranma, thus was afforded extra time with him. Add to the fact she technically knew Ranma first.

Claiming Ranma was well within her hands. Spontaneously pulling out the race…

Ukyo couldn't be happier.

'Heh, I can just picture our honeymoon now,' The Okonomiyaki specialist envisioned the two's warm, intimate holiday on a romantic, faraway tropical island like they had just gotten married right there in school, chin lay atop her palm as she giggled contently, staring at Ranma's back from her place behind him. Content to drift blissfully in the realm of day dream.

Deeply engrossed as she were it made the sudden magnetic-like pull back to reality that much more jarring when the entire front classroom door itself exploded off of its hinges, followed by a huge portion of the wall, allowing smoke in waves to billow amongst the startled gasps and horrified shrieks of the students.

"What the hell?" She shot to her feet, hands slammed against the surface of her desk.

"What the hell is right," Her fiancé followed suit, eyes narrowed in suspicion, "I got a bad feeling about this."

The culprit was fast revealed, the plumes of his destruction swelling around his decidedly underwhelming image. It took some of the sting off the tension for the students seeing a screwy military-dressed individual, but just a little. Anyone who could bust through walls as easily as hay was not someone any normal student wanted to trifle with.

Ranma, however, froze, heart stopping and eyes dilating wide to the recognizable figure he had seen mere moments before, "It's you," He breathed out almost in a hushed whisper, promptly causing inquisitive eyes to turn one another followed by hushed whispers of gossip.

"You know this guy, Ranma?" Akane asked, concern unhidden in her eyes.

Ranma scowled, blood heating in his veins, "Yeah. Saw him a little while ago eating a roast duck."

Akane gasped at the implications, hands clamping over her mouth, "You don't think…?"

"Who knows!?" Ranma responded back sharply, glare never leaving the shielded gaze of his likely adversary, "But I hope not!" Mousse was a lot of things, but even he didn't deserve to die. No one did, "So Mr Soldier-guy, what gives? Any special reason for the big ol' grand entrance or do ya just like to show off?" He asked the military soldier directly with his patented sarcasm. He felt it was better off being snarky to hide his fear of this situation turning into a bloodbath.

Recruit's words were as decisive as they were elaborate, "Tango acquired."

"He's after Ranma?"

"Well, no shit. Who else could he want?"

"Go figure."

Ranma bristled at the unanimous decision, "Aw, screw the lot of ya!" Huffing in irritation to himself, earning a sympathetic smile from Ukyo in the process, Ranma turned to his latest opponent, thumbing his chest confidently, "Wanna piece of this? Then come and get it!"

Recruit made a gesture as if indicating he would make good on Ranma's acceptance, but hesitated noticeably, shifting glances that could be described as uncertain to Ranma's classmates then back to the braided haired martial artist himself, obviously trying to convey a message in regard to them.

"What?" Ranma asked blankly, "What about them?"

"I think he's worried they'll get caught in the crossfire," Akane offered.

Ranma's face fell into a blank state of stunned incomprehension, "Really?" Recruit nodded, seemingly giving the girl beside his desk the tiniest of thankful smiles, much to her awkward acceptance, "Interesting." He obviously wasn't a mindless killer or straight up bad guy in the deepest ends of the black spectrum otherwise he would have no qualms injuring anyone to get to Ranma.

"So now, what?"

"Yeah, if he can't attack Ranma until he moves we kinda at a stalemate."

Ranma shadow boxed the air in the direct direction of Recruit's face in experimentation, not even getting so much as a flinch from his military-dressed assassin, "Uh, whaddya know, he really won't attack if I'm around innocent bystanders."

Akane let out a visible sigh of relief before rummaging through her blouse, "Oh, I get it. As long as you stay near even just one of us he'll have his hands tied," A smile worked its way onto her face, ignorant of the dry gazes she received from Ukyo and Ranma from her retelling of Ranma's observation, "If I just call Urameshi-san, I'm sure he ca-."

"NO!" Ranma cut off any such suggestions of assistance from the older teen with a furious, belligerent yell, causing Akane to flinch. Paying no heed to the gossip questioning the identity of Yusuke and wondering if he were the same 'infamous' one he charged from his decided sanctuary amidst the other students, skidding to a stop across from the shining gaze of opportunity of his opponent, "It's me you want, isn't it!? Well, here I am!"

He turned, sprinted over to the window and pulled it open with purpose before leaping headstrong in the wide-open sky, not surprising anyone considering this wasn't the first time they had seen him soar from a third floor of a four-story building.

"Ranma-honey!" That was all Ukyo was able to get out right before the entire flooring of which the two combatants stood on was ripped by an upheaval of such kinetic force the fierce gust of wind comparable to a mini tornado appeared in its wake, flipping over the front desks of the classroom and knocking said students over.

"WAH!"

"HOLY SHIT!"

The next Ranma-hunter had literally torn the classroom asunder on his route to his prey, ploughing _through_ the glass window itself instead of jumping over it, leaving a wide gaping hole in the wall that let in all the cold of the outside world.

Absentmindedly, as they helped their fellow students up, assuring they fortunately didn't suffer any concessions from the sudden impact they realized they had to count themselves lucky that he wasn't willing to go through them to get to Ranma, otherwise he would've decimated them all just by simply charging toward them.

XxX

'Didn't mean to overreact like that, but at least this way no one'll get caught in the crossfire,' Ranma deadpanned, annoyed and mostly disappointed with his outburst as he continued to descend at a high frequency. He liked to think he could maintain his composure so for him to flip so melodramatically left a sour taste in his mouth, 'Oh well, guess I can just blow off some steam on militar-.'

The devastating ear-splitting sounds of shattering glass shards and a detonation akin to a bomb going off rang in his ear, prematurely ending his declaration the same time a solid clutch likened to a bear's grip tightened around the back of his head, prompting him to widen his eyes comically.

"Holy hell!" He could do nothing other than helplessly flap his arms up and down like a chicken as he was driven downward so forcefully numerous rings of air manifested through the driven downward push he was on the end of, sinking into the ground as the entire playground was upheaved, several huge spikes of stone now protruding from the ruined ground.

He was yanked from his face down position in the annihilated ground to his back to meet the shielded gaze of his current tormentor, still scowling defiantly at Recruit even as the one-man wrecking team tightened a fist above his head.

With all the momentum he could muster, Ranma hauled his entire weight heavily to the left, flinging himself from Recruit's grasp with enough force to make him bounce off of the elevated rocks just as Recruit's gloved fist buried into the ground, producing a shockwave that shattered the protruding crags and further cratered the ground, sending Ranma tumbling in a frenzy just from the violent winds the mere power generated from his earth-shattering punch created.

"Darn it!" Ranma grimaced, stopping against the now curved walls of a fairly deep crater he resided in, rolling down the edges before halting his momentum. He pushed himself up to his knees, eyes widening to the rocky terrain he now found himself in, "No way. The guy just turned the playground into a pit with one stinking punch." He dawned on him just how grave a mistake he had made overlooking his luck by leaving the other students, 'Maybe I shoulda just let Akane call the jerk to handle this juggernut after all?'

Recruit wasn't about to let him get away, not after isolating him from other civilians he was powerless to inflict harm upon due to his own kind-hearted nature. He zoomed, tearing a wide, square-shaped chunk off of the ground from the charge and appeared before Ranma's widened eyes, thundering a fist to his face he just barely inched out of the way of, though the air pressure shrouding Recruit's speedy fist ripped into his shoulder-blade, tearing the fabric of his red Chinese shirt.

'Aw nuts! Now he doesn't even need to land a hit on me to do any damage!' He was trapped in a frenzy, backpaddling with all the tangible urgency of his life being in serious legitimate danger of ending as thunderous right and left hooks were rocketed toward his panicked visage, cutting into his cheekbones with the powerful armour-like coats of sheer air pressure his flying limbs were shrouded in, 'Crap, crap, crap!'

He found his back pressed up the proverbial wall of the jagged edges of the crater, eyes widening in horror to the dire predicament he was caught in with his foe bearing down his neck, winding up another wrecking ball-empowered punch.

Instinctively, he threw his body into a barrel roll, narrowly avoiding a cataclysmic blow and consequently, similar large-scale destruction to the ruined area ahead of them. The surrounding gates barring entry to the school grounds and the parking lot it shielded were simply no more, decimated from the explosive impact triggered by Recruit's mini nuke-level punch.

He forced himself to his knees once again, ignoring his searing wounds across his thoroughly shredded countenance. Finally, all his pain endurance training his old man forced him to do was paying off in spades, "Damn it…" He turned his head to the collision of a thousand explosions, eyes dilating to the numerous spider cracks and wide cervice split open in the slope, "This guy's nuts…!"

Danger signals were detected in his warrior's instincts, but his body just couldn't react to the instantaneous-like movement. He took a blow to his sternum, feeling the solid boot-clad foot rip his muscle tissues in his chest apart, bruising his skin while the momentum of the punt carried him skyward with such ferocity it was as if he had flown using a jetpack.

"Ugh!" He grunted, wheezing in the agony of his bruised sternum. Every time he breathed in air he felt as though he was being stabbed several times over, 'Crap… that smarts. I'm in the air, though. My domain.' Recruit didn't give him a moment's rest, didn't afford him the luxury of descending at his own leisure and jumped, soaring to the heavens like a rocket to reach his target, forcing said target to skillfully weave out of dodge allowing him to pass by a hair, 'Gimme a break.'

Recruit nosedived back at him, but it was clear to the disciple of the air bound fighting style the powerhouse brawler was inexperienced in air fighting, allowing him to surprisingly take the ascendancy and deliver a three-hit combination of kicks, flipping him from his diving position, twisting him inside out and finally slamming him back toward the playground-turned-crater they started in.

"Ha! How do ya like 'em apples, pal?!" Ranma bragged, coasting on his laurels to space. "No one can dethrone a Saotome in an air fight." He felt a large measure of deep satisfaction hearing the impact of his opponent's fall and cloud of dust erupting as a result with his enhanced vision honed from years of intense training, "Suck on that, jerk!" Showing impeccable zoom once more, Ranma caught sight of a crimson star-shaped shine glowing through the dust cloud, raising his eyebrow, "What's that?"

A high humming sound of a halo suddenly whooshed into existence, birthing entry to a towering blood-red beam of light shooting upward on a one-way course to Ranma-extinction, causing said target to widen his eyes substantially.

"Holy crap!" He pushed the upper half of his body back, narrowly evading fiery doom, the sheer heat of the blinding red light burning into his face, "What else is this guy hiding up his sleeve?" He couldn't worry about that now, his main concern being the barrage of rocketing pillars blasting his way from Recruit's now unshielded eye sockets, pulling his frame in numerous directions at such a speed he unintentionally created the delusion there were several duplications of himself all dodging Recruit's faint, blood-red light blasts of doom, 'Darn it! How much juice has he got in the tank? He's gotta be running low on fumes.'

At least he hoped, because Ranma didn't how long he could keep up the act of evasion. Visible sweat was beginning to coat his forehead and armpits, soaking his shirt.

A flash of inspiration hit him like a truck when his eyes honed in on the bane of his existence and one thing he made sure to avoid like the plague since his time at Furinkan, reflecting the sun's brightness on its liquid surface, 'Well, beats being target practice,' He mused dryly, diving vertically to the pool across campus, thanking his lucky stars each pillar of death dissipated within moments of missing him otherwise his spontaneous on-the-feet solution would've been much more difficult to pull off.

Recruit also lacking any real semblance of complete control over his laser beams helped too seeing as the demolition man could only fire off his beams in one direction only. Knowing that, he ceased firing once Ranma was way out of range by re-cladding his eyes in his ski glasses and instead took off, further rupturing the ground just by the earth-shattering pressure produced from his flight-like charge, easily singling out Ranma's increasingly smaller-looking frame and powering after it shrouded in an intense aura of air pressure alone.


	7. Son of a Demon

**cheeks Disclaimer: I don't own YuYu Hakusho or Ranma 1/2**

* * *

Ryoga didn't know what he had been thinking when Yusuke led him to an open plain field clearance surrounded by a few cliffsides and stoned platforms while adamantly insisting he was, in fact, going to teach him how to _dodge_ according and when needed.

" _Dodge_!"

His approach to "training" him was nothing sort of barbaric and sadistic. Many times throughout Ryoga's insane country-long hikes and climbs up mountain ranges strapped down with a boulder on his back had he wondered was Yusuke just torturing him for his own sadistic pleasure, but he couldn't dare call him out on his brutal and often cruel training regimes for fear of being given an even harsher workload to fulfil.

He learnt that the hard way, having been pushed to his near breaking point as a "punishment" for questioning his master's methods. He didn't even possess the strength necessary to trudge home and Yusuke wouldn't carry him on his shoulder like he usually would whenever his disciple collapsed from exhaustion. He had to _crawl,_ using his _chin._

It was gruelling.

Given what he knew of his master's fondness for cruelty, he really should've seen this coming.

"Dodge!" Instead of showing him ways of evasion he simply rushed him without warning, hammering him down with a vicious left hook to the jaw while just shouting dodge with authority, as if he honestly expected his disciple to evade with multiple cinderblocks tied around his arms, legs and torso. And this continued until Yusuke eventually climbed above Ryoga and cannoned him through several layers of ground with a powerful stroke of an air pressure induced punch.

"Ahh." He moaned in an utterly dazed manner, swearing the fluffy white clouds were circling in his vision. Arms splayed out eagle-spread on the rocky surface of the deep pit he had been shovelled into by the mere force generated by his master's arm, Ryoga murmured, "He calls this training? It's more like a tortured period," The sunlight being eclipsed by the shadow of his torturous master forced him to stand, and he did so, but good god was it difficult. With his body heavily fatigued, the cinderblocks suddenly felt like mini mountains crushing his bones.

He could barely stand up straight without folding inward, wheezing like he had heart problems. Once he could stand straight for more than five seconds without stumbling that left another problem he became aware of, surveying his surroundings in hopeless confusion.

"Now how I am supposed to get out of here?"

"Climb up!"

"I could maybe dig my way out and up, but I don't think I have the energy for that."

"Climb up!"

"What do you think, Sensei?"

"I _said_ to climb up!"

"Hm, you mean like using my 'weights' as a ladder? That could work but I thought you said not to take them off unless you gave the okay?"

"Ugh!"

After what seemed like an utter eternity of seemingly several long hours of gruelling training, Yusuke decided enough was enough and called for a break. The words "That's enough" were music to Ryoga's thoroughly sore ears. All the tension of remaining upright despite his fatigue abated, stance dropping as he allowed gravity to carry him to the ruined grassy ground beneath him.

"Oh, thank heavens!" He exhaled audibly, chest visibly raising up and down with great effect. The shadow of his tormentor eclipsed his sprawled out form.

"Man, you really need to work on your evasion skills, pal," Yusuke commented, hands on his hips.

Ryoga wheezed, prying himself to a seated position with his knees raised to rest his elbows upon, "Oh screw you, Sensei!"

He wasn't sure whether it was out of mercy or pity, but his tormentor broke out in a grin, seemingly letting up on the hoax, "Alright, I was just kidding about the whole dodge thing. That was just strength training."

"No, really. How so?"

"Because getting your ass kicked builds stamina," He answered, insisting when his student sighed in a deflated fashion and flopped back down on the grassy land of their training field, "No, I'm serious. When you get used to getting your ass kicked you _get_ USED to getting your ass kicked, know what I mean?"

"Uh-huh."

Apparently not.

Granted, he probably wasn't explaining his reasoning all that well, like at all. Okay, he wasn't but in Yusuke's defence, he had always been a simple guy with just barely average intelligence at best and a little below at worst. The details were usually left to the smart ones of his crew, like Botan, Kurama, Hiei, etc.

He basically just meant the body naturally strengths the more damage it takes, given proper rest of course. As muscle tissues repair themselves after a savage beating they harden so they can withstand greater damage without the body giving out. Similar to a Saiyan from DBZ, just not as ridiculous.

Accepting that he wasn't Kurama, master of exposition, Yusuke dropped the matter, sauntering over to their things consisting of his coat and Ryoga's travel pack and trusty umbrella to retrieve his phone before returning to his exhausted disciple several yards away.

"So, did you get trained like this?" He looked idly in the process of switching on his cell at his student's question, who scowled at that expression of earnest curiosity, feeling like he was being played for Yusuke's own amusement, "Did. Whoever. Train. You. Make. You. Dodge. Like. This?" He specified, enunciating each word with deep aggravation.

Yusuke sat on it for a moment before being taken back to memories he thought he had suppressed, featuring him climbing a massive mountain, getting rifled by a flurry of punches while climbing up said mountain as a consequence for stopping, sleeping with snakes, or even on a bed of nails as the better option when he whined about his roommates. Just thinking about his time with Genkai was enough to send shivers down his spine.

There was no question about it. She had run him through his paces through hell and back again. No wonder he wussed out the first time and only went back when Toguro showed up and demanded he attends the incredibly lethal Dark Tournament.

"Yeah," Yusuke murmured, inhaling slowly. Ryoga stiffened at the sudden change in demeanour, mouth agape at Yusuke's darkening eyes, "You can say that again, pal."

"Uh… huh." Ryoga said, this time with a noticeable nervous shudder. He avoided his noticeably peeved trainer's eye but looked back when he cursed under his breath, "What?"

The sunlight perfectly shadowed the light illuminating a small part of his face from his phone's screen, "Got a bunch of _missed_ calls, voicemails and a _text_ from your dream girl," He deadpanned in irritation. She was going to be livid with him. To her, it had to have felt like he was blatantly ignoring her.

"Akane?" Wide eyes blinked at him. "What does she need you for?"

"Don't know, but I got a bad feeling about why she does," He said, facial features hardening in a sobered glare. He tucked his phone away neatly in his jeans pocket, "C'mon, let's roll. She might need us."

"Right." Ryoga agreed without hesitation because of course he did. Just put Akane and assistance in the same sentence and the lost boy would travel to the ends of the earth to find his way to her to offer her the hand an angel like her deserved. He couldn't have gathered his belongings fast enough for his liking. He would've taken off his cinderblocks too if his sensei allowed it, but surprise-surprise, he didn't, much to Ryoga's annoyance.

Alas, time was of the essence and with every second thrown away was another of his precious crush facing dire life-threatening circumstances, if the shher number of times she had tried to get in touch with his sensei was any indication. Unless, she was calling him for another reason, such as confessing her interest in him, but that _would_ be ridiculous.

His master wouldn't betray him like that. Granted, they hadn't known each other for long (only a short time) but he felt fairly assured of his opinion of the young man. Yusuke Urameshi was a good man, of this, Ryoga was nearly certain.

He was far better than most guys he associated with around the crazed land of Tokyo by a country mile but that wasn't saying much. The standards of "alright guy" were at an all-time low in these ends of Tokyo, but such was the case when everyone and their grandmother was a major asshole. Standards had to be lowered for what one considered nice around the "shady" parts of Tokyo.

So here they were blitzing through the countryside travelling at Mach 5, casually overtaking any car in sight as they stopped and stared after the two insanely pacey wonder kids running alongside the road as if they were meant to.

"Hey, sensei," Ryoga prompted, looking at the overpowered combatant sidelong as the intense wind of speed whipped the bangs of his hair about, "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Why do you have Akane's number?"

Coasting Through Life

 **C**

 **H**

 **A**

 **P**

 **T**

 **E**

 **R**

 **SEVEN**

Son of a Demon

There was no lingering about for the now drenched redhead in the pool. She was out in a fiery red dash, subsequently drying herself off, only to get showered again when her assassin dive-bombed straight into the very much formerly known pool. What once was a place of bustling activity and competition was reduced to a mere rocky crater by the sudden impact of the one-man destroyer of all things-built rocketing into it.

The water shot upward in a ferocious upheaval, accompanied by the deafening roars of a TNT explosion blaring in the distance before rapidly curling at its edges and pouring down on the ruined centrepiece in waves as though it was actually raining.

"Damn you," Ranma wheezed on her hands and knees, just outside the newly made bottomless pit, "Destroying the pool like that." She understandably felt incredibly awkward saying such a thing considering she hated any temperature of water below warm as she wobbled to her feet, "I-I mean, just 'cause I don't like swimming, doesn't mean others don't, you jerk!"

Ugh. That was lame. No wonder people thought she was an asshole. The nice guy gig was unbearable.

She didn't get any time to dwell on her supposed mean tendencies, though, not with her aforementioned killer burrowing toward her at breakneck speeds, driving through the ground like a drill to spring at her from below like a sleeping dragon awakening from a long slumber with a vengeance. Her reflexes were sharp, instantaneous-like speed be damned.

She flipped high and over the new crevice the little military-dressed machine of destruction created, hooking her fingers under the edges of her lips and prying open her mouth to wiggle her tongue out in brazen immaturity, "Na-na! You slowcoach! Gonna have to be a lot faster than that to hit this!" Recruit flashed in front of her, seemingly responding to her bait with action, "Whoa!" A rush of explosive air split the shoulder of her blouse to pieces whilst she soared, flipping to a handstand on Recruit's head, "Ain't you learnt anything yet?"

She asserted her superiority with an overhead throw, shaping legs swinging downward and arms twisting to an angle. The startling tremor and slight quake beneath her feet was heaven, "The air's my domain," She finished, a hand on her hip with an air of superiority hanging over her.

Recruit twisted around rapidly like he was pulling off some serious dance moves, kicking out a heel which his target flipped away from, even commenting on his wild unconventional style.

"Hey, those your dance moves?" She mocked cheerily, already in the motion of backpedalling away with extremely pacey steps even before the onrushing tornado that was the proclaimed dance machine flew toward her, "Go get 'em, tiger!" She didn't even know if the soldier could feel emotions like annoyance (given how his facial expression had remained entirely neutral up to this point), but a lack of definitive knowledge wouldn't stop her from trying to rile him up.

It was a habit. Not to mention poking fun at her opponent kept her from panicking from being pressed so immensely. She just inched closer to being on the receiving end of one of Recruit's building-level punches and went that happened, well, it was nighty-night for Ranma.

And to make matters worse – as if they weren't already – her movements were stalled by solid stone. A feeling of dread plummeted in her gut when she realized she had backpaddled against the wall of her school building with a look over her shoulder, a lapse in concentration which would prove costly.

It was all Recruit needed, ploughing into her with all the "grace" and "poise" of a wrestler tackling another, spearing her inside the vacant establishment of an abandoned classroom with all the equivalent force of a freight train. And my word, did she feel it.

To put the unbelievable pain inflicted upon her into perspective, the combined force of the perverted midget terror of the day, Ryoga and Akane would hurt _ten times less_ than the slim guy charging into her. The collision alone generated powerful winds, sprawling desks everywhere like a tumble dryer.

She had no winds to spare and Recruit wasn't even done with her, not by a long shot and especially now that he had a hold of her. He gripped tightly onto the braid of her luscious shiny red hair, swinging her around in numerous three hundred and sixty turns like she was a rag doll. A high-pitched squeal of agony involuntarily ripped from her vocal cords, tearing springing to her eyes.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!" Even as the burning sensation of her hair being pulled settled from a grip being released, her skyward momentum carried her through _all upper_ floors of her school, rubble flying into and scarping her face before the sunlight finally flooded her once more; but even hanging in the clouds the dazed girl struggled to regain control of her own momentum, 'Darn it! He's too much for me!'

This would likely mark the first time that she had admitted an opponent was too much for her to handle. Recruit was relentless, showed no reaction to being mocked and was nearly as fast as her while being twice as powerful.

The utter helplessness of it all was dousing out Ranma's usually inextinguishable fire of unbreakable tenacity, reflected in her darkening eyes of a defeated spirit.

 _Whoosh!_

Recruit essentially flew above her, hanging over her like a god looking down at a mortal. In all honesty, she felt like an ant in the shadow of a deity from above nigh emotionlessly glancing up at her tormentor. It wasn't until she saw that eerily red glow flaring to life in between his goggles did her eyes light back up, but in horrified recognition.

"No, wait! You can't-!" She pleaded, twisting her head over her shoulder to look down into the gaping hole that used to be a roof, and that was when she saw it. Or, to be more precise, them. A group of dots she assumed were people hurrying away from Furinkan High School, "…Or maybe you can." Ugh, of course, every single member of the faculty and student body would evacuate first chance they got. No one would feel safe sticking around where so many explosions were going off with massive pits opening up immediately after.

She felt silly for overlooking such an obvious instinct bore from natural self-preservation even as she looked back to find Recruit's eyes clad in two spherical red shells of destructive power, goggles in his hand, "Oh boy."

She was so doomed it was a downright miracle.

xXx

Pandemonium was in full swing by the very first crater that opened up over the school's playground. Students and faculty alike were on their proverbial bikes, hurrying through colliders while aggressively shoving against each other's shoulder in a contest to see who could escape the pit fire first. It wasn't like that at first; total disorder and panic.

At first, the teachers had attempted to maintain order, collectively ushering the students out in an orderly manner, but soon as the massive tremors were felt they threw all semblance of professionalism out the window, and from there, well…

It was every man, woman and children for themselves.

So there was Akane, behind everyone else watching her fellow students sprint for the hills and away from the danger zone, merely jogging at a hesitated pace.

"I've got to go back and help Ranma," She decided, face hardening in resolve. Even if she couldn't get a hold of that jerk Yusuke she couldn't just leave Ranma to face the running disaster by himself. She stopped and did a U-turn, heading back the way she came as fast as her shapely legs would carry her.

The solider's power was absolutely terrifying.

She couldn't recall any of Ranma's previous opponents causing such damage to the environment around them just by moving, even Happosai and Ranma himself, and that conclusion frightened her more than anything.

"Hey, Akane! Wait up!" Ukyo's voice rang loud behind her, the chef elite catching up to her before matching her stride, "I'm coming too."

Akane's expression soured, "Why? So you get in his good graces?" She quipped dryly.

"Ugh! This is no time for that!" She snapped back, though paused and added almost as an after-thought, "Though I certainly wouldn't mind."

The Tendo heiress rolled her eyes, "Whatever. Like I said before, you can have him."

"How could I forget?" Ukyo quipped with a winning grin, holding up the peace sign for victory. Akane rolled her eyes once more, but on that note of Akane spontaneously pulling out of the race for Ranma's hand, Ukyo's curiosity got the better of her, "Hey, who was that guy you were trying to call in class? Yusuke something?"

Akane turned her nose up at the mention of the missing redefined delinquent, "No one! Just a jerk who'll not be named!"

"Oh boy. So you already have another fella in the doghouse huh?"

Akane stumbled in her pacey steps, hastily recovering with a flushed face, "Y-You shut up!"

Oh, she should've known Ukyo was never going to with that reaction. It was all too inviting and the wave of teasing had to burst through, "Oh, I see how it is," Akane glared, wishing her enraged stare could turn into death beams like Recruit's to incinerate Ukyo's sly, smug grin, "No wonder you gave up on Ranchan. You knew you didn't have what it takes to win so you settled for second best."

"Shut up!"

"Yo!"

Speak of the devil and he shall happen. When she didn't want to see him, didn't want to hear him, Yusuke turns up, hollering playfully, "Is it too late to crash this party?!" So overwhelmed with such annoyance at Yusuke's untimely arrival, she didn't even hear Ryoga's concerned voice following right after Yusuke's brazen call.

'Huh?' Ukyo blinked, looking back and forth between Akane's seething form of barely self-contained fury and the running duo heading toward them, 'This the guy she was talking about?' She wondered, observing Akane's deeply heated expression of barely restrained anger and loud growls rumbling from her throat.

It didn't take the boys long at all to reach the two girls which meant it didn't take Akane long to exact her revenge on the young man with Ryoga, "You jerk!" She screeched, swinging a roundhouse slap with the turn of her body, glare intensifying when her wrist was casually snagged out of the air by Yusuke.

"Uh-huh." He deadpanned.

"You jerk!" She wailed, bursting into tears. Yusuke looked entirely unaffected by the girl's waterworks, only having his feathers rustled when she admitted and cushioned her head against his chest, "I was worried about you!"

While Ukyo observed Akane's snuggling of Yusuke with a keen eye, Ryoga offered Akane a sympathetic glance, 'Akane.' He tried to ignore his gut feeling telling him she was enjoying the closeness to his sensei.

"Damn, my bad," Yusuke apologized, offering the emotional girl drenching his shirt in tears comforting strokes to her hair, "Didn't mean to make ya worry. Should've kept my cell on," In response to his gentle confession of his fuck up, Akane pressed herself tighter against him. Eyes softening further, Yusuke snaked his other arm around her back, ignorant to his disciple's mystified stare. He gave her a moment to hug out her teary stress, either not caring or not seeing the intensely inquisitive look of the weird girl in the boy's uniform before prying Akane off him, holding her by her shoulders, "But look, I'm here now. You don't need to worry anymore, okay?"

Akane nodded, subdued, "Okay."

Yusuke's warm smile of approval heated her cheeks, "That's my girl, now c'mon! Let's roll." He exclaimed brassily, taking her hand in his, "We got a pal to save."

"Okay," She repeated, almost in a trance. Before she knew it, her feet were marching the pacey strides of the young man of her current affections, leaving an inquisitive Ukyo and a bamboozled Ryoga.

"Akane," He moaned, longingly.

"Well, that was interesting," Ukyo noted, nodding to herself, "At least this explains why she was willing to give up on Ranchan. Guy's pretty good looking," She rose her head with an assured confidence, placing her palm to her chest, "Of course, not as sexy as Ran-chan, but still a nice-looking guy for her."

"What the hell are you saying?" Ryoga snapped.

Ukyo blinked his way, "Huh? Are you blind? They clearly have a fling."

Ryoga's face turned red in anger, "Shut the hell up! Yusuke-sensei would never do that to me!"

Ukyo shook her head in pity of Ryoga's jealousy, "Even if he doesn't like her, she sure as hell likes him. She was all over him!" A sympathetic smile curled across her face to Ryoga's escalating fury. Seeing him growling and clenching his fists, she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Hey, it's okay. Plenty more girls where she came from, you know?"

"Shut up!" He demanded, tussling her hand off.

Ukyo held up her hands in a placating manner, backing up, "Okay, soak all you want but word of advice. Moping isn't going to get Akane to like you and not 'Yusuke-sensei'" She jibed and walked off to her man, leaving Ryoga's fiery temper to simmer into passive aggression.

"Yusuke-sensei wouldn't betray me like that," The tightening of his balled hands thundered in the deafening silence of his silent rage, "He promised me," His face scrunched up, "But then, why was he so bashful when I asked him why he had Akane's number?" He wanted to stop doubting himself, but when the seeds were already planted, there was little he could do to cease them from blossoming.

xXx

'I'm so screwed,' Ranma mulled, tearfully, actual tears of sadness springing to her eyes watching the reaper of death drawing near her. She felt ashamed closing her eyes from death's merciless frosty clutches beginning to ensnarl her curvaceous figure.

A distinctively naughty fanged grin flashed through her mind. She bristled, 'Why am I thinking about that jerk?' She was about to die and the only thing she could envision was Yusuke's cheeky, leering smile admiring her female form. She hated how strangely warm it made her feel, even with death's embrace surrounding her. In fact, it seemed the more she thought of Yusuke's sassy smile the more she was loosened from death's hold, 'Get outta my head!'

A strong, yet comforting hold wrestled her from death's grip, warming her body right back up. Crushing metal assaulted her ears; a bizarre substitute for the burning sensation she assumed she would've experienced in Recruit's death beam.

"What the fuck!?" Yusuke's immense roar of dumbfounded confusion violently whipped her back to reality just in time to find wires and screws scattering before their eyes, flying off in every direction, topped off with Recruit's decapitated head shooting upward, "He's a bucket of bolts!"

Ranma didn't know what jarred her more; the fact that it was a robot who had been utterly rag-dolling her about or that Yusuke had eradicated said cybernetic warrior so easily. Sadly, her jarring confusion was only hiding the inevitable; her wounded pride.

"You jerk," She sniffed, drawing Yusuke's pensive look to her lowered head. He scratched his cheek unthoughtfully. He hadn't assumed a tough-guy supposed like Ranma would cry over a measly loss, but as she lifted her head, she hit him where it hurt the most with her glistening eyes of unshed tears; the feels, "You coulda at least pretended to struggle against him." She wailed and the dam broke free. Waves of pure liquid manifested from her grief-stricken heart shot forth from her eyes.

Yusuke figured his eyes were turning to wet cement with the number of times they were softening, "Hey, hey, c'mon!" He urged frantically, looking out of his depths, "Turn off the waterworks already. You don't want people to think you're a wuss."

"Oh, shut up!" She demanded defensively, droplets of tears splashing from her eyes like water, "I'm a girl right now! it's okay to cry as long as I'm like this."

"That's not how it works, but okay," Yusuke compromised with a forceful smile. Ranma huffed and lowered her gaze away from his, dropping his smile immediately, "Look Ranma," He began, softly tightening his hold on her and lowering his voice, "it's okay to lose and need a hand to bail you out of crap sometimes."

"Easy for you to say!" Ranma retorted, not realizing their slow descent. Bitterness oozed from her tone, "Mr Invincible!"

"You make it sound like I'm a god or something."

"You might as well be!" Yusuke chuckled despite himself, reigniting Ranma's temper. The battered redhead swatted his arm, reminiscent to a wife nagging at her lazy husband, "Stop that!"

"You hold me in too high regard, little sis," He quipped, eliciting a sulky scowl from Ranma at the reminder of her current gender which prompted her to cross her arms and turn away from him in a huff, "I'm not all that." She turned back to him with a dry deadpanned stare comparable to the desert.

"Uh-huh."

"Well, uh, maybe to you guys, I guess," Yusuke amended awkwardly, "I got perks you and the others haven't."

"Perks?"

"Yeah."

"What kinda perks?"

"I'm the son of a demon."

The sound seemingly vanished; silenced like a television being muted for Ranma's blank stare of absolute incomprehension.

"What!?"

"You heard right."

Ranma glared, wishing she could burn his nonchalance away, "Oh no! Don't you dare try and play this off like it's nothing!" She demanded and Yusuke caressed the back of his head in bashful discomfort.

"It's not that big a deal, really," He assured.

Ranma had a face of someone who entirely felt their companion was from another planet, "Uh, yeah!" She retorted sassily, "I think it is, genius. You don't just tell your friends you're a frickin' demon outta nowhere."

"Well, I'm not really a demon if it helps," He made a face, screwing it up further when Ranma peered up at him questioningly, "It's complicated."

"How so?"

"The old guy I inherited my demon blood from was my ancestral Father. Hell, I had to die twice to just awaken my powers."

"Uh… huh?" Ranma nodded along, utterly lost in the woods of complication to Yusuke's ascendancy to demon hood, "Wait! You died? Twice."

Yusuke shook his head, "It's complicated."

Ranma frowned dryly, "Boy, ain't you the enigma?" Yusuke just shrugged, continuing their descent to ground level. It didn't take any longer for them to reach the earth, though the petite redhead almost wished they had. The second her feet touched ruptured concrete, she felt the full force of her depleted adrenaline with the extreme pain of her injuries bombarding her all at once like a military's all-out assault, "Kyaaaa!"

"I gotcha," Her saviour, maybe wanted or unwanted, coolly assured, swinging one of her arms around his neck, providing her leverage and weird comfort with the skin on skin contact. Her body betrayed her, sending a jolt of pleasure up her spine from their closeness. She could feel her involuntarily warm.

"Thanks," She mumbled, turning her cheek from him.

Yusuke looked at her curiously, 'Huh? What's her deal?' He didn't get the luxury of pondering Ranma's unusual demeanour because Akane chose that moment to join them, jogging worriedly up to them.

"Ranma!"

The redhead glanced up at her impassively, "Akane?"

Akane wasted no time verbally tearing into her, "You reckless idiot! Why didn't you just wait with the rest of us? He wasn't going to attack you if you were with us!"

"Butt out of it!"

"You could've died!"

Ranma flinched, remembering just how close she came to getting annihilated off the face of the Earth and unfortunately, how completely terrified she was. That heart-beating, heavy breathing fear was comparable to the immense fright she felt during her cat torture; something she wished to never have to experience again. She couldn't come back from that.

Akane was right. She was foolish and thin-skinned, letting her pride get the better of her and dictate her judgement.

"Wait. That robot-guy I just wiped out didn't endanger the other kids?" Yusuke asked, taking pity on Ranma by his deflection from her impetuous nature.

"That's right," Akane nodded at him, "He wouldn't attack Ranma so long as _she_ was with the rest of us," She then glared at the downed redhead, "But then this idiot just had to get all prideful and run out into the open."

Ranma's cringe at the added insult to injury went unacknowledged by Yusuke, "So I take it there's someone trying to smoke Ranma, huh?" He asked, cupping his chin with his free hand.

Akane released a heavy sigh, "I don't know! Ranma's always been a trouble-magnet but nothing like this!" She exclaimed. Ranma didn't know whether to feel pleased, satisfied or annoyed at Akane's backhanded compliment.

"Gee. Thanks."

"We think he even killed Mousse!"

Yusuke's eyes narrowed, "Hold up. Mousse? You mean that bonehead I scared away the other day? The one obsessed with Shampoo?" He lifted an eyebrow, "That Mousse?"

Akane nodded, "That's the one."

Yusuke inhaled sharply in awkward agitation, "That's real messed up, but why'd that guy, or whoever created him, wanna do Ranma and Mousse in?"

"Because of our curses," Ranma said so softly Yusuke barely heard her.

"What was that, Red?"

"I said it's because of our curses. Mousse has one too," She clarified, trying to straighten under her own power, "I'm fine. I can stand on my own," She tried, brushing off Yusuke's hesitance when the older teen moved to hold her again when she removed her arm from his neck. She staggered drunkenly, snapping an arm to her thoroughly damaged ribs.

"You sure about that?" The resurrected demon probed, earning a glare from her.

"Anyway," She took a deep breath, cringing massively at the sharp pain of her bruised chest, 'Darn, hurts just to breathe.' She did her best to ignore Akane's deadpanned stare and Yusuke's concerned eyes to preserve what little pride she still clung to, "About two months ago, this big buff guy and creepy guy showed up claiming me and just about anyone with a curse had broken their 'code of conduct' and came after us."

Yusuke adsorbed her recap of events with thoughtful nonchalance, "And you're sure that robot showing up is their work?"

"Who else could it be?" Ranma shot back with a slow, agonizingly shrug of her bruised, heavy shoulders, "I mean, no other jerk I've faced before has ever threatened to kill us for ticking them off," She argued, "And I mean like legitimately threatening to kill us. Heck, they even kidnapped the others, including my old man!"

Yusuke considered this, "So it's a revenge thing, huh?"

Again, another shrug from the injured redhead, "Probably."

A look of concern from his admirer, "What will we do now, Yusuke?"

If Yusuke noticed Akane's referring to him by his first name he made no mention or indication of it. Instead, he gestured his arms near Ranma, causing her to tense up, "First, we should get Red patched up." He made a move to lift her up, but the spunky redhead jumped out of his radius, consequently aggravating her injuries.

"Hey, I can walk just fine on my _own_ , you know!" She insisted _strongly,_ fighting back a cringe of pain jolting through her system.

Yusuke deadpanned, "Uh-huh. Then try leading the way."

Ranma pouted, but took the challenge anyway. She didn't even make a step before taking a stumble to the ground, "Kyraa!"

Or she would have if Yusuke hadn't of caught her and lifted her up like a husband carrying his newlywed, "See? I told you. You're way too beat up."

"Oh shut up!" She demanded, burying her flushed face into his shirt.

Yusuke sighed, looking at Akane with a raised eyebrow.

"What?"

She was glaring at him before she donned an artificial sweet smile.

"Oh, nothing."

* * *

 **Oh, Yusuke. What are we gonna do with you, buddy? You're making the girls fall for you with your glowing charisma. Anyway, lemme know what you guys think of the chapter. I'd very much like to hear your opinions. Peace and take care.**


End file.
